Textile recycling gets boost from Eileen Fisher Foundation

The Eileen Fisher Foundation (EFF) has launched Hey Fashion!, a digital platform that aims to expose textile waste issues and promote circularity.

EFF’s mission is to prove to the fashion industry the benefits of confronting the climate crisis, urging other brands, foundations, innovators, waste collectors and consumers to get involved in moving circularity forward.

The platform provides key tools, advice and information to assist the transition to circularity. It shows how to drive tangible action, avoid greenwashing, and mitigate risk.

Plans to improve infrastructure

Eventually the foundation hopes the initiative will help to scale up textile recycling infrastructure, promote underutilized technologies to prevent textiles from going to landfills, and encourage behavioral changes regarding consumption.

The platform is designed and operated by Pentatonic, a design and technology consultancy focused on the circular economy and sustainable innovation.

“As the leader of an apparel company, I feel an urgency to address the challenges the industry faces regarding textile waste, overconsumption and circular design,” said Eileen Fisher, founder of EFF and her own namesake brand.

“By inviting Pentatonic to research the current state of circularity, my intention is to facilitate meaningful collective action that moves the industry forward.”

Research into action

A large barrier to the fashion industry engaging in a circular system is translating the overwhelming amount of research into feasible actions. Pentatonic has provided an 8-step action plan:

  1. Scale up sorting
  2. Invest in recycling
  3. Make less, buy less
  4. Work together
  5. Design to last, design to recycle
  6. Define and standardize
  7. Leave fossils in the ground
  8. People, planet, profit

Hey Fashion!’s educational tools will deliver content for designers, manufacturers, brands and retailers, investors, regulators and citizens. The platform will include spaces for discussion, connection and ultimately, action.

The research to date will be available for free in a variety of formats on heyfashion.org and social media.