Fashion is a global, incredibly complex network which covers multiple different supply chains of its own - from growing cotton and fibers to, weaving them into fabric, dyeing and finally sewing the garment together - each completed by a different group of people, in different regions, countries and continents of the world. Plus, with the current consumption trends, there is too much wasting involved. We consume too much, we waste too much, rarely questioning where what we throw “away” goes to. They all end up somewhere, causing crisis in many forms but particularly environmental, social, climate and economical crisis. On top of this, recyclable goods are rarely recycled. 

 

The amount of waste fashion contributes to and the landfills full with textile waste threatening ecosystems and life as we know is a major subject to be tackled by the responsible stakeholders of the value system. With the current scenario, repurposing what was once waste and recycling holds a great promise. However, while there were big efforts and contributions from some industry players, there were also others which caused mistrust; clearly pointing out once again, that transparency is fundamental to make sustainable fashion a reality.

 

As a responsible stakeholder and solutions provider at scale, Soorty currently has a recycling percentage of around 23% of fibres in its products, which is aimed to increasing further by 10% annually. Holding repurposing and recycling as a key asset for offering added value products to the market, Soorty recently joined forces with Haelixa to identify, track and trace their recycled cotton using Haelixa’s DNA marker technology.  The marker is solved in liquid & then applied to textile waste before mechanical recycling takes place in spinning. Following this, spot checks are done with the intermediate products as well as tests with the final garment to prove that the product contains the recycled cotton. The test is based on highly scalable PCR (polymerase chain reaction) technology that is 100% reliable and has forensic validity. 

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Haelixa will offer Soorty’s customers the use of its Marked & Traced by Haelixa label for garments, enabling customers to inform the end consumer of supply chain transparency efforts. This label will be open to customization, and can be complemented with a QR code linking to a dedicated landing page, where product stories could be brought to life to enable customers to access supply chain and product verification data. Customers only need to reach out to their account leads at Soorty to learn more about how they can convey the whole experience to their own customers, ensuring a complete transparent dialogue through the entire supply chain and the conversations are not limited to B2B but in fact go beyond to B2B2C.