Inditex, the brain behind Zara, Bershka and Pull&Bear, wants to ditch those pesky single-use plastics in its fashion pipeline. But hold on! Zalando, the big German online fashion hub, isn’t quite sold on that idea.
This back-and-forth has been ongoing for more than a year. Inditex is pushing for a switch from plastic garment bags to more eco-friendly options before shipping to customers. However, Zalando isn’t convinced that a swap to cardboard or paper will significantly reduce their environmental footprint.
Meanwhile, a representative from Inditex mentioned that the company, in collaboration with its partners, is actively striving to eradicate single-use plastics for customers by the end of this fiscal year. The representative noted that Inditex’s compliance with this target stands at an impressive 95 per cent across its entire group. This includes the removal of various plastic components like hangers, stickers, perfume wrappers and the commonly used clear plastic packaging, known as polybags, aimed at protecting orders.
Zalando is also experimenting with various strategies, be it altering the way clothes are folded or exploring thinner plastic bag options in pursuit of long-term solutions that minimise waste.
The fashion industry heavily relies on polybags to safeguard garments during transit, churning out a staggering 180 billion single-use plastic polybags annually, most of which end up as waste. So, who is right here? Inditex deserves recognition for its strides in reducing its carbon footprint. However, Zalando’s skepticism about the authenticity of this movement isn’t entirely unfounded. According to Bloomberg, packaging, including polybags, constitutes only a small fraction, around 5 per cent of Inditex’s competitor Hennes & Mauritz AB’s carbon footprint, as per its 2014 sustainability report. It is improbable that this number would have changed significantly at Zara in the intervening period. The bulk of H&M’s emissions, approximately 70 per cent, stems from clothing production, with packaging making up about 8 per cent in its 2020 report.
Polybags play a crucial role by safeguarding garments against damage from moisture or dirt during transit, preventing unnecessary emissions. Retailers usually discard these bags before displaying products in their stores.
Consider this: 700 gallons (2649 litres) of water are needed to make one garment. For every pair of jeans produced, 2,000 gallons (7570 litres) of water are wasted. Every garment has a significant environmental cost in addition to the discharge of dyes and microfibres into waterways and the carbon footprint of fossil fuel manufacturing and shipping. Imagine the enormous ecological impact on the entire process if a shipment containing shirts gets destroyed in the rain without plastic packaging. That’s not all, though! The process has an immeasurable financial cost on the lives of the labourers and suppliers. Even Patagonia, widely regarded as the benchmark in sustainable clothing, retained polybags after an internal study revealed that 30 per cent of unbagged items were unsellable due to damage. Inditex, while not intending to eradicate plastics entirely, is committed to reusing and recycling all its bags instead.
The primary cause behind the growing carbon footprint of fashion is our increased frequency of clothing purchases. The rise in popularity of fast fashion, which led to customers viewing clothing as disposable, resulted in an 82 per cent increase in the per-capita production of textile fibres between 1995 and 2018. The post-Christmas sales season has historically served as a symbol of the industry’s sustainability challenges. Even before fast fashion urged customers to stuff their wardrobes with more clothing, retailers were packed with extra inventory that needed to be cleared out through heavy discounting.
| 180 billion
The fashion industry produces around 180 billion single-use plastic polybags each year to package garments, shows research. |
Merely 40 per cent of apparel sold in the sector are retailed at full price; the other 50 per cent are marked down and the remaining portion are never sold. Getting into arguments to maintain the impression that you don’t use polybags would not reduce carbon footprints nearly as much as reducing that waste.
Fast fashion is frequently used as the scapegoat for every issue facing the rag trade. That isn’t totally accurate. If Inditex’s rivals could replicate its renowned level of efficiency in its just-in-time supply chain, our mountain of waste apparel would likely be significantly reduced. Its inventory turnover—a metric that quantifies the amount of unsold merchandise on shelves—is better than that of its main competitors.
A recent survey conducted by the United Kingdom’s Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) found roughly half of clothes sold online by major fast fashion retailers are made entirely from virgin polyester. In a world where over 50 per cent of clothing is made of inexpensive polyester, the single-use plastics we wear pose a much greater threat than the delivery bags they come in.
