Circularity has become a popular topic within denim production in recent years, but it is becoming even more apparent that traceability is pivotal to discovering and solving the root environmental problems manufacturing can bring.
In the denim industry, all conversation goes back to cotton, the main raw material that comprises the popular fabric. Upon launching its XDD REUSE tracing process, XDD Textile wanted to answer a serious question within denim circles: how could traceability be improved in the cotton production and recycling processes?
XDD Textile takes pre-consumer waste collected from the mill’s partner garment factory to be regenerated and respun into good-as-new cotton. This recycled cotton is derived from the cuttable wastage from XDD’s own fabric, which is why the cotton can be traceable.
In this “Cut Waste Reuse” process, XDD can use 10 to 15 percent of the cut wastage from the garment production process and turn it into recycled cotton.
While some brands have already used 5 percent recycled cotton to proceed in sustainable fabric production initiatives, the recent increase of such figures to 20 percent and beyond illustrate the industry’s demand for more recycled cotton.
Recycled cotton provides significant benefits, in that it can prevent additional textile waste and require far fewer resources than conventional or organic cotton. The waste is often classified into two categories: pre-consumer waste, which includes scraps created by yarn and fabric byproducts, and post-consumer waste, which also includes garments from previously recycled finished goods.
The XDD REUSE collection is made from pre-consumer waste, with the main material collected from XDD’s partner garment factory, which continuously works with textiles from the manufacturer.
XDD REUSE also leverages the company’s Closed Loop System, not just to reuse waste to create new fabric, but to also further guarantee the quality of the denim and ensure one can trace the cotton back from where it came.
XDD’s circular Closed Loop System was designed so that the textile mill can collect and regenerate the cotton, and further increase its capacity to produce 100 tons of recycled cotton per month. The system is powered by the XDD Sewage Recycle Process to reuse and recycle waste, particularly since Vietnam restricts waste imports.
XDD Textile itself operates as a vertical enterprise, starting from the purchase of cotton, all the way through the yarn spinning and denim production and recycling processes. The company attributes this vertical model to its ability to offer a traceable cotton supply.
XDD has built a recycling process designed to divert more products from landfills, which would help alleviate the estimated 25 billion pounds in annual textile waste produced, according to the Council for Textile Recycling.
The company’s established tracing process for the XDD REUSE collection can be viewed here:
With the above process in place, XDD aims to guarantee and ensure that all denim production at its factories remain of the highest quality.
XDD says it is the first mill in Vietnam that has started to use cuttable fabric waste for recycled cotton, which is now certified by Control Union, Recycled Claim Standard (RCS) and Global Recycle Standard (GRS).