The partnership will allow clothing manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers to address the devastating environmental impact of products made partly or wholly from non-recyclable plastics including polyester and polyamides.
The EFG matches 60,000 fashion businesses in 140 countries with sustainable suppliers around the world. It joins Electron Thermal Processing and the leading global industrial gases and engineering company Linde plc as strategic partners of HUI.
Ethical Fashion Group (EFG), co-founded by Harold Tillman CBE, and Hydrogen Utopia International (HUI) PLC, a UK-based firm specialising in turning non-recyclable mixed waste plastic into hydrogen and other carbon-free fuels, have entered into a strategic partnership to provide a fashion pollution solution to clothing manufacturers and suppliers.
The clothing industry is the biggest pollutant in the world after the oil and gas sector, producing an estimated 92 million tonnes of textile waste every day. The majority of clothing is now made using refinery-derived products including polyester, polyamides or a combination of the two.
Harold Tillman CBE said: “The technology developed by HUI 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.”
“It is a huge honour to win the support of Harold Tillman for the work being carried out by HUI. 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. As Seneca said, ‘Luck happens when preparation meets opportunity,’ and this is why I believe Mr Tillman and HUI are a perfect match,” said Aleksandra Binkowska, founder and chief executive of HUI.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DP)
