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The cork-a-tex skirt from Têxteis Penedo was the star product of the Green Circle, which most attracted the visitors to the forum that CITEVE and Selectiva Moda took to Heimtextil from the 9th to the 12th of January. “Our message is simple. We came here to express that sustainability is not just using organic cotton. Sustainability is not greenwashing.”
“Sustainability is much more. It is something that is changing the day-to-day lives of our companies, which is present in all phases of production, in creativity, design, processes, and also, of course, in the use of unlikely materials as raw materials for the industry”, said Braz Costa, the executive responsible for the textile technological center.
In the middle of the forum was a table with some examples of these unlikely materials: turmeric, banana leaves, coffee bean skins, grape seeds, wood fibers, hemp, and biomass…
“Ordinary materials, at the end of their life or waste from other economic activities, which we take advantage of and transform into raw materials for our industry”, added Braz Costa, leader of the Be@t project, which involves around 50 companies committed to discovering new ways to manufacture textiles while respecting the environment.
The result of the Be@t project is the vest in non-woven fabric, complete with a skirt made from a bath towel, one of the 15 outfits on display at Green Circle, the overwhelming majority of which used recycled or biobased products supplied by home textiles.
Also remarkably noticed was the outfit with a burel coat and a skirt knitted by the elderly from a home with leftover Filasa yarn, using the bobbin lace technique.
The Green Circle also had the nine commandments on the sustainability of CITEVE written on the wall: reduce water consumption; natural dyeing; the prevalence of renewable energies; recyclable materials; bio-based fibers; reduce carbon footprint; ecological finishing processes; transparency and traceability; social responsibility. “Sustainability is not just raw materials, it’s energy savings, it’s less water consumption – it’s less…”, summarized Cristina Castro from CITEVE.