Debrand, a Vancouver-based reverse logistics solutions provider for apparel and retail brands across North America, has received over $325,000 in funding from the CleanBC Plastics Action Fund, administered by the Province of British Columbia and Alacrity Canada through the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.The grant will support Debrand’s new research and development initiative focused on diverting plastic-based apparel and textiles that are currently deemed non-reusable – keeping them out of landfill and integrating them into the region’s growing ecosystem of circular material solutions.“Plastic-derived textiles contribute to a significant portion of today’s fashion system, making up about 60 per cent of the world’s clothing. The industry has a responsibility to reduce its impact by extending the life of the materials that have already been extracted,” said Amelia Eleiter, co-founder and CEO of Debrand. “This funding allows us to go deeper into understanding apparel’s plastic waste stream here in B.C. and apply advanced sortation technology to better understand what’s possible, so we can design smarter circular systems that valorize these materials, not waste them.”In a statement, Debrand officials said the initiative will leverage its automated sortation machinery and proprietary software to analyze plastic-based apparel and textiles currently in circulation. “By sorting these garments with precision and identifying their material composition, the project aims to better understand the operational and economic requirements needed to prepare these items for appropriate reuse and recycling pathways,” they said.They said the goal is to address what they call “a major gap” in North America’s fashion industry: the lack of scalable infrastructure to manage end-of-life textiles. “Despite growing consumer and regulatory pressure, most apparel today remains designed for disposability. At the current pace, the world is discarding a truckload of textiles every second – a figure that underscores how urgently we need systems-level solutions,” they said. (ICE TORONTO)

Fonte notizia: https://www.canplastics.com/