Challenge
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Cintres en bois
Format
Today's tomorrow

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100% recyclable garment hangers for sustainable fashion

4 min

Description

Helping fight ocean pollution, in September 2019 start-up Arch & Hook and French designer Roland Mouret launched a recyclable hanger made from plastic waste.

Components

Every year, billions of hangers are used by the fashion industry to transport clothing only to be replaced by the stores’ own - better quality - hangers. Every year a total of 85 billion single-use hangers are discarded across the world.

According to an investigation by the British tabloid the Mail on Sunday, they pose such a serious environmental threat that they could outstrip the damage caused by plastic bags, straws and bottles.

With this enormous amount of waste, Dutch start-up Arch & Hook teamed up with French fashion house Roland Mouret. And at London Fashion Week in September 2019, they launched their eco-friendly hanger.

Called "Blue", it is made

80 % from marine plastic waste and

20 % from recyclable plastic.

The result is a product that lasts five to ten times longer than conventional single-use models.

And at end of life, they can be recycled without the quality deteriorating during recycling. For London’s Fashion Week the French designer handed out nearly three hundred of these eco-responsible hangers free of charge to designers.

The gesture helps to point to the excessive use of hangers in fashion. "Too many big retailers are handing out plastic hangers to customers for free when they’re often just pointless packaging. How many people hang their undies in a wardrobe?" says Greenpeace official Louise Edge in the Daily Mail.

In the long term, the start-up Arch & Hook and the French design house Roland Mouret hope to popularize their eco-responsible hangers with the fashion industry, which is criticized for its ecological footprint. In 2018, the textile industry was the second most polluting industry in the world, according to a report by the Institut National de l’Économie Circulaire.