Tillman's Ethical Fashion Group links with textiles-to-fuels recycler

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Feb 22, 2023

The Ethical Fashion Group (EFG) is stepping up its already wide-ranging stance on sustainability. The business, co-founded by fashion veteran Harold Tillman, has joined forces with specialist textile recycler Hydrogen Utopia International (HUI).

And together, EFG and HUI will provide a "ground-breaking Fashion Pollution Solution" to clothing manufacturers and suppliers.

While EFG matches 60,000 fashion businesses in 140 countries with sustainable suppliers around the world, HUI specialises in turning non-recyclable mixed-waste plastic into hydrogen and other carbon-free fuels.

The companies cite a clothing industry that “is the biggest pollutant in the world after the oil and gas sector, producing an estimated 92 million tonnes of textile waste every day”. They intend to “make it easier for clothing manufacturers, suppliers and retailers to access textile recycling options… with a route to addressing the environmental impact of products made from materials such as polyester and polyamides”.

Tillman, a former owner of British fashion brands Jaeger and Aquascutum, said: “The technology developed by Hydrogen Utopia means that, for the first time ever, the fashion industry can be part of the solution to the epidemic of plastic pollution facing the planet, rather than part of the problem.

“After a lifetime in the fashion industry, I am passionate about the urgent need for clothing manufacturers, suppliers and retailers to address the environmental damage they cause, and to embrace ethical and sustainable production.

“The Ethical Fashion Group helps them do this and this strategic partnership with HUI has the potential to transform the global clothing industry by tackling our addiction to plastic products.”

Aleksandra Binkowska, founder and chief executive of HUI, added: “Consumers are dressing themselves in plastic, often without knowing it, by buying over one trillion items of clothing a year that are destined to end up in incinerators or landfill sites. Our Fashion Pollution Solution will give manufacturers access for the first time to technology that turns these items into road-fuel quality hydrogen fuel that will power the next generation of carbon-free vehicles.”