In 2024, the denim supply chain embraced new innovations and enhanced existing programs to significantly scale sustainability efforts.
From fibers and fabrics to trims, circularity continued to gain momentum.
In 2024, Cotton Incorporated’s Blue Jeans Go Green partnered with more than 15 retailers to collection denim to recycle. The recycling initiative recycled 400,000 pieces of denim, diverting 200 tons of textile waste from landfills. Blue Jeans Go Green also produced 800,000-square-feet of insulation created from recycled denim with Bond Logic to use for building insulation, cold chain packaging insulation and pet bed inserts.
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Denim Deal, an industry-leading initiative committed to driving circularity in denim, made it easier for brands to source fabrics made with post-consumer recycled (PCR) cotton by launching Denim Deal Approved Fabric Collection. The fabrics are developed by Denim Deal member mills and contain a minimum of 20 percent PCR cotton.
Additionally, the fabrics adhere to the group’s guidelines for quality and durability—a critical step in building confidence in the use of fabrics containing PCR cotton.
In October, textile recycler Cyclo bowed its first line of denim fabrics made with up to 95 percent Cyclo recycled cotton. Mustafain Munir, Cyclo fibers president, said the company is particularly excited about a fabric that contains 90 percent Cyclo recycled cotton and 10 percent Tencel lyocell, noting how the Lenzing fiber improves garments’ hand feel and makes them recyclable.
Eastman positioned Naia Renew, a staple fiber derived from wood pulp and GRS certified recycled waste materials, for the denim market in 2024. Naia Renew is comprised of 60 percent sustainably sourced wood pulp and 40 percent certified recycled waste, diverting from landfills. The waste is broken down to its molecular building blocks through Eastman’s patented closed-loop molecular recycling technology and combined with sustainably sourced wood pulp. The resulting cellulosic fiber is circular, fully traceable, biodegradable and compostable with a reduced carbon and water footprint.
Japanese trims manufacturer YKK increased it usage of materials from sustainable sources by 12 points to 38 percent of all product sales. A newly developed proprietary in-house recycling technology for copper and zinc alloys is contributing to this increase. The materials are currently used in zippers. The company aims to increase the ratio of products made with sustainable inputs to 51 percent.
Jeanologia unveiled Life Anhidra, a closed-loop water recycling system that recovers 95 percent of the water used, returning it to the system in optimal conditions for reuse in washing and finishing processes. The process also reduces energy consumption up to 15 percent.
Jeanologia worked with AITEX, the Textile Industry Research Association and Portuguese textile company, Pizarro, on the project. Funded by the European Union’s LIFE program, Life Anhidra demonstrates how business cooperation and technological innovation can provide effective solutions to major environmental challenges. The group plans to implement Anhidra in at least 36 industrial facilities over the next three years, aiming to expand to 100 systems internationally within five years.
The textile supply chain gained a new tool to navigate its waste issue.
Fashion for Good launched World of Waste, an online tool that provides an overview of data on waste quantities, types and compositions as well as links to the original studies. The tool was developed in partnership with Reverse Resources, Global Fashion Agenda, Circle Economy and Accelerating Circularity with funding from Laudes Foundation and IDH.
With information on waste attributes, data collection methodologies, organizations involved, and a lens on upcoming studies for a region, Fashion for Good says the first-of-its-kind tool empowers users of textile waste and stakeholders looking to further the industry’s knowledge base. More data allows companies like recyclers to strategize their feedstock sourcing and help inform governments as they make policies and regulations for sustainable waste management practices.
In Pakistan, textile waste management firm Reverse Resources and the National Textile University joined forces to transform the country’s textile-to-textile recycling landscape and create a structured framework for the supply and demand of textile waste to ensure transparency and enable traceability. Textile manufacturers like Artistic Milliners and Interloop are supporting the project. Omer Ahmed, managing director at Artistic Milliners, said the initiative aligns with the company’s goals and vertically integrated operations, including recycling capabilities.
Several initiatives highlighted the denim industry’s complicated use of potassium permanganate, also known as PP spray.
In March, a report by Clean Clothes Campaign Turkey (CCC Turkey) argued that PP spray is just as harmful as denim sandblasting which afflicted garment workers with silicosis and was banned in 2009 CCC Turkey called for brands producing in Turkey to immediately reduce their use of PP and said companies must develop and implement policies regarding chemical usage in their supply chains, including health and safety measures and environmental damage mitigation.
Italian chemical supplier Officina39 launched Zero PP, a full package of affordable solutions to replace PP. They key eliminating the chemical, according to Andrea Venier, Officina39’s managing director, is finding balance between effects, productivity and cost.
Kipaş Denim presented Contra Denim, a laser- and laundry-friendly fabric range that achieves vintage effects and high contrasts with less impact than traditional methods including the use of PP spray. The fabric was developed with chemical company Archroma. The collection utilizes Archroma’s Denim Halo approach to denim production, which incorporates Dirsol RD, a resource-saving pretreatment, and dyeing processes to produce fabrics that are easy to wash and laser.
Lab grown cotton made headway in 2024 as well. Boston-based Galy Co., a sustainable agricultural startup developing first-of-its-kind sustainable cellular agriculture products, announced the closing of an oversubscribed $33 million Series B financing in September led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) with additional participation from new investors H&M Group and Zara parent Inditex.
The funds will primarily be used for research and development and to scale its flagship product, Galy Cotton. The lab-grown cotton uses 99 percent less water and 97 percent less land than traditional cotton while emitting 77 percent less CO2.
G-Star Raw unveiled “Homegrown Denim,” an initiative with Wageningen University & Research and Dutch Cotton that explores how cotton grown in greenhouses can minimize the impact of growing the resource-intensive fiber worldwide. The research found that growing cotton in a controlled and protected environment boosts crop productivity, quality and sustainability while lowering the risks associated with outdoor growing.
Now that the potential of using the greenhouse-grown cotton has been proven, a second phase will explore scaling the innovation.
