Clothing items made from coffee grounds. Fashion products nowadays must not only cater to the needs of customers to dress well, but also be close to nature, protect the environment and be safe to users’ health. (Photo: courtesy of Faslink) Fashion Link JSC (Faslink), a pioneer in supplying greenmaterials to the fashion industry since 2008, constantly researches tocome up with a variety of sustainable materials for the fashion industry,including yarns made from bamboo, lotus, seashell, coconut, mint, and coffeegrounds.
Faslink CEO Tran Hoang Phu Xuan said the company has partneredwith Singtex, one of the leading providers of eco-friendly functional textilesin Taiwan (China), to produce yarns and fabrics from coffee grounds.
Faslink is the first company in the world to commercialise shirtsmade from coffee yarns and sells them in the domestic market.
She said this high-tech yarn, made from used plastic bottles andcoffee grounds, is environmentally friendly, deodorising, fast drying, andUV-resistant and has many different applications.
Xuan added that more than 40 fashion brands in the domestic market haveused this sustainable material to produce millions of products.
Her company has a project in collaboration with Singtex to collectcoffee grounds in Vietnam, she said, pointing out that since Vietnam is theworld’s second largest coffee exporter it could supply a huge amount of thisraw material.
Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai, General Secretary of the Vietnam Textile andApparel Association, said: “Green transformation in the garment and textileindustry is mandatory to catch up with commitments under new generation FTAs.
“Vietnam's textile industry has embarked on a transformation since2018 with the ‘Greening Vietnam’s Textile Sector’ programme. In this … journey,many businesses, including Faslink, have researched and launchedenvironment-friendly fabrics made from lotus, mint, pineapple, and, especially,coffee grounds."
Huge potential market
Xuan cited a recent report by Coherent Market Insights as sayingthe global sustainable fashion market was worth 7.8 billion USD in 2023 and isprojected to reach 33.05 billion USD by 2030, a compounded annual growth rateof 22.9%.
Sustainable fashion encompasses various practices aimed atreducing environmental and social impacts, such as excessive water consumption,pollution, unethical labour practices, and the production of vast amounts ofwaste.
Rising consumer awareness of environmental sustainability andsocial responsibility has caused a surge in demand for sustainable fashionalternatives.
Simultaneously, stringent governmental regulations mandating sustainablepractices further foster market expansion, according to the report.
While many countries around the world have gone a long way insustainable fashion, it is still in its infancy in Vietnam, according toexperts.
Traditional clothing production is resource-intensive andcontributes to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable fashionbrands focus on minimising these impacts by using eco-friendly materials,reducing waste and adopting responsible manufacturing practices, they said.
Pham Chi Nhu, CEO of Coolmate, a Vietnamese menswear brand, said:“Sustainable fashion is an inevitable trend. The new generation of consumers,especially Gen Z ones, not only pays attention to design and material whenchoosing a fashion item but also cares a lot about the product’s story,especially its sustainability aspect.”
He said coffee fabric has the advantages of cooling, quick drying,UV protection, and odor control. It is suitable for making men's clothing andis widely accepted among eco-conscious consumers.
But the prices of sustainable clothing products are admittedlyrelatively high, making them less accessible to the masses, he said.
He added that coffee grounds fibre is mainly used to make fabricsfor formal clothing and not sportswear, reducing customers’ choices.
Mai said: “This is the time for businesses to go green and makethe digital transformation. Fashion products nowadays must not only cater tothe needs of customers to dress well, but also be close to nature, protect theenvironment and be safe to users’ health.”
To enable businesses to overcome cost barriers and promotesustainable fashion, she said policymakers need to consider tax incentives forfirms involved in collecting and producing recycled and environment-friendlyproducts./.
VNA
