Apparel Online Bangladesh Magazine October Issue 2018 | Page 56

SUSTAINABLE BD APPAREL RESOURCES NEWSLETTERS FACEBOOK FRIENDS To subscribe, send us an email at [email protected] Join more than 10,000 people who are already fans of Apparel Resources on facebook. Search for Apparel Resources at https://www.facebook.com/apparelresources/ ASOS to provide sanitary protection to young Kenyan women from leftover fabric British fashion retailer ASOS has come up with Kujuwa initiative that aims to provide help and support to the young women and girls with affordable sanitary protection. There are many young females who have to miss their school or college due to lack of sanitary hygiene products. cotton briefs, waterproof wash bags and bar of soaps. The pads have been made following extensive consultation of local women and were tested by SOKO employees. They are manufactured by Stitching Academy, using the scraps of waste fabrics from ASOS ‘Made in Kenya’ garment production. This project is in collaboration with the SOKO Community trust, which provides people with practical skills needed to see sustainable improvements in their lives and lifts them out of poverty. Also, six schools will be provided with hygiene and confidence training. These schools are also a part of another project ‘Wash’ which provides the underprivileged schools with water tanks, toilets and hygiene education. As a part of the initiative, 900 girls will be provided with KIT (Keep It Together) bags, that have sanitary pads with removable liners, two The production of sanitary pads is expected to become a source of income for the Stitching Academy Hub members. Also, the positive feedback of the community for innovation will direct the business towards the small manufacturers with regular orders. Moreover, this programme will also provide the young rural girls of Kasigau region of Kenya sanitary protection apart from health education. BlockTexx and The Formary join forces to develop textile recycling and waste solutions valuable circular system,” said Peter Thompson, CEO, The Formary. BlockTexx, an Australian fashion technology company and The Formary, a New Zealand based textile research company, have collaborated to address the issues related to textile waste. The partnership was announced in the New Zealand’s first circular economy conference, which is a collaboration between the Sustainable Business Network’s Circular Economy Accelerator and WasteMINZ, New Zealand’s largest representative body of the waste and resource recovery sector. With this collaboration, the company aims to develop new strategies and work-flow models for recycling and repurposing the world’s tsunami of textile waste. Fast fashion and high consumption are driving the creation of 100 billion garments each year. This leads to the generation of enormous amount of textile waste. Less than one per cent of the textile waste is recycled and most of it is sent to the developing countries where it ends up in the landfill. “The Formary is a leader in this space and we believe our focus at BlockTexx on using technology to unlock the immense value in textile waste along the entire supply chain, strongly complements The Formary’s expertise,” said Graham Ross, Founder, BlockTexx. “We are excited to be joining forces with the team at BlockTexx, combining textile, technology and market place expertise to advance the clothing industry to a resource respectful, financially 56 Apparel Online Bangladesh | October 2018 | www.apparelresources.com As a part of 2020 Circular Fashion System Commitment, 94 global fashion brands including H&M and Adidas have committed to addressing the ‘Take, Make and Dispose’ approach to textile manufacturing, including increasing the use of recycled textiles across their product range.