Challenge presented by
ATTRACTION is a family-owned company located in Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1980, ATTRACTION markets customized apparel to the Canadian recreational, tourism and promotional markets. Its exclusive Ethica and Initial brands are manufactured locally or imported, then inventoried and customized using a variety of decorative techniques.
The company’s customers benefit from over 40 years’ experience in garment design, confection and decoration under one roof, creating an exclusive Canadian “One Stop Shop” offering.
The company’s head office is located in Lac-Drolet, as is its decoration workshop and a portion of its local production of Ethica-brand clothing. The remainder of the company’s local production is carried out in a state-of-the-art workshop in Montreal’s fashion district, in premises freshly fitted out according to the company’s needs (source of textile scraps).
Attraction also fosters local development by offering the people of the region a diversity of quality jobs that are safe and accessible to all, in a work environment that is inclusive, family-oriented, respectful of people and the environment.
The Challenge
In 2022 Attraction manufactured 672,942 units of upper-body casual clothing. In the manufacturing process, an average of 85% of the material is used. Why 85%? Because the fabric is woven and knitted in a rectangular pattern, and this 2-dimensional material is transformed into a 3-dimensional garment that is designed to follow the shape of the body. Where there’s shape, there’s curve. Cutting curves from straight material results in a loss of around 15% of the material.
This top-quality material is sent directly to landfill. This represents 12 tonnes a year of top-quality organic cotton and recycled polyester fabric that could be recycled or repurposed into other consumer products.
The composition of textile scraps in their raw state contains a percentage of more or less 65-75% organic cotton and 25-35% recycled polyester. This information also applies to shredded material. Fibers could be sorted by composition or color if required.
Our aim is to eliminate the textile waste generated by our regular cutting operations.
Here’s a diagram to illustrate the concept:
Other relevant information
Respecting the environment and being conscious of our ecological footprint isn’t a new trend or a new way of doing things at ATTRACTION, it’s a value the company has always taken seriously.
Over the past 5 years, Attraction has launched a number of initiatives to find ways of reducing textile waste sent to landfill. However, these initiatives are not enough to transform all our textile waste. The most promising project at the moment is the following:
Ethica Cushions
We shredded our textile scraps to transform them into cushion stuffing. Although the response from our markets has been good, we would need to manufacture/sell no less than 13,458 cushions a year to recycle all our textile scraps. Sales in 2022 amounted to less than 1,000 units.
The shredding process is mastered by the company and can be extended to a volume as large as the totality of our textile scraps. However, major efforts are required to market the product and/or to make agreements with companies in the furniture or decoration market. We need support to bring the finished product (stuffing or cushion) to life. Although this solution is not an end in itself, it’s an interesting avenue.
Wadding can probably be used in a variety of applications that are still unknown to us (insulation, soundproofing, cultivation, etc.). On the other hand, other solutions that don’t include shredding can also be considered.
Constraints
For a textile recycling / reclamation project to be viable, it must consider three main factors:
- The investments to be made must have a return on investment of less than 12 months (purchase of equipment, product development, marketing).
- A maximum amount of textile scraps must be recycled, ideally all of them.
- The selling price of the recycled product must take into account the cost of the labor required for processing, and allow for a minimum gross profit margin of 35%.
Other relevant information
- The company is open to participate in technology showcases.
- Any technological readiness level (TRL) is acceptable.
If you have any questions, write to the Ecotech team at [email protected]