ImagesMagUK_September_2021

INDUSTRY NEWS www.images-magazine.com 18 images SEPTEMBER 2021 Essential Workwear launches garment recycling initiative Dunstable-based Essential Workwear has launched a garment recycling initiative to help its clients become more sustainable and achieve targets for net-zero emissions. The garment decoration company’s programme guarantees that all textiles are securely destroyed by a custom- built cross-cut industrial shredder, making the textiles unrecognisable and breaking them down to a size where it is impossible to re-weave back into any other garment. Once the textiles are destroyed, they are baled into mill-size bales and transported to specialist mills to begin the recycling phase. Certificates are issued including the time and date that the shredding took place. The company will charge an admin fee per garment to carry out this process, which is intended to cover any direct costs – no profit will be made from the initiative. George Georgiou, managing director of Essential Workwear, said: “For more than 20 years, we have been witnessing the huge impact that our industry has on the environment, and we recognised that the time was now in 2021 to introduce an innovative and powerful new service to help reduce waste into landfill. “The Essential garment recycling programme will offer all of our clients the opportunity to support their ESG (environmental, social and governance) policies now and long into the future. “Together with our team of uniform specialists, I am immensely proud to have launched this new service. It’s the smallest changes which make the biggest difference.” imagesmag.uk/essential-recycle ECO INDUSTRY NEWS Report reveals need for QR codes on labels and packaging Consumers are keen for products including clothing to come with labelling and packaging that uses technology such as QR codes in order to give them more information. According to a new report from connected technology agency SharpEnd, 71% of UK consumers are interested in finding out more about the products they buy and 65% would take time to engage with products via their smartphones. Products using technology such as QR, NFC (near-field communication) and augmented reality (AR) are perceived to have a higher value, according to 53% of consumers. Top of the list is sustainability, with 75% of UK consumers wanting to use their mobile devices to connect with products to find out information such as how to dispose of or recycle a product. The study also found that 57% of respondents wanted to use labels and packaging to learn about the sustainability credentials of a product, with 53% specifically saying they wanted to use the technology to find out a product’s provenance. Clothing manufacturers already picking up on this trend include Mantis World, which last year introduced QR codes on the inside care labels of its garments, providing customers with information about each product’s environmental impact. The new report is the first edition of an annual benchmark planned by SharpEnd that counts Levi’s and others among its clients. The research also features input from companies including Ebay. imagesmag.uk/qr-nfc-report Pin it... on the Images Pinterest boards: www.pinterest.co.uk/imagesmaguk MD George Georgiou is “immensely proud” of Essential Workwear’s new recycling service NFC and QR technology can allow clothing to help people connect to extra information about a product