Javier Goyeneche: “The fashion business model is not working.”

Thirty minutes – that's how long we use a plastic bag for on average before we throw it away. It often ends up in the sea, together with 5 to 13 million tonnes of other plastic waste per year. Javier Goyeneche turns it into clothes. He explained his business model here and at the GDI Retail Summit.
20 April, 2021 by
Javier Goyeneche: «Das Fashion-Geschäftsmodell funktioniert nicht»
GDI Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute
 

Javier Goyeneche has declared war on plastic waste. On excursions with fishermen in Spain, he saw them pulling ashore not only fish but also tonnes of rubbish in their nets. A current estimate of the global input of plastic waste into the oceans ranges from 5 to 13 million tonnes per year. Most of it remains invisible to us, says Goyeneche, because 75 percent of the waste in the ocean floats below the surface. And ultimately it ends up in small particles in the bodies of sea creatures. A third of all fish are already polluted with microplastics today.

That is why Goyeneche is fighting the pollution of the oceans. The Spaniard is president and founder of the sustainable fashion brand Ecoalf. The brand is about new technologies, research and development and innovation – and not about sewing grandma's old blanket into a skirt. Goyeneche has already developed 450 types of fabric from recycled plastic bottles, tyres, fishing nets and even coffee. And the pioneer of sustainable fashion has more big plans, because he is convinced: “The fashion business model of today is not working.”

Goyeneche describes here in a video how his company Ecoalf produces recycled clothing of the same quality as the best non-recycled clothing:

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