To neutralize the estimated 267,111 tons—and likely more—of textile waste generated in the Philippines each year, however, current initiatives across private and public sectors are of course far from sufficient. For organizations like ANTHILL, meaningful and long-term partnerships are a key factor for growth. “You can’t be a lone player in the circularity space,” says Lim. “Now we are barely able to create a dent, but together with big corporations who have more power and resources, we can at least move forward in advocacy and in presenting solutions.”
That said, establishing long-term partnerships could prove challenging, as many businesses are still in an exploratory stage when it comes to sustainability. Due to a lack of understanding in sustainable and circular processes, full commitment among enterprise clients can be rare. “They don’t understand if it’s [made out of] ‘trash’, why it isn’t cheap,” says Lim. “Some clients are just happy to donate, and think they’ve done enough by just donating [fabric waste]… It comes down to educating the client, and having a circularity champion within their organizations.”
Irene Subang, an experimental sustainable fashion designer, and instructor at iACADEMY and SoFA Design Institute, also points to education as a key starting point in shifting both professional practices and public perceptions of sustainability. “The way fashion students are taught now, they need to work on new, whole fabrics,” says Subang. “Nobody teaches zero-waste pattern making at fashion schools [in the Philippines] yet… So when you introduce upcycling or zero-waste design, students can get confused and give up. A good start would be putting zero-waste design in the syllabus.”
Similarly, it’s critical for brands and designers who focus on sustainability to interact directly with customers, strengthening the message of why and how they make clothes in unconventional ways. “Customers often don’t understand the design process of something that’s upcycled, deconstructed and reconstructed, vs. something that’s conventionally made,” says Subang, adding that communicating those nuances could help shift consumer behavior, and eventually lead to a wider adoption of sustainable alternatives.
For now, one encouraging sign is that, in addition to schools and companies, a broader alliance of stakeholders are joining in on the sustainability advocacy. For years, a key initiative for ANTHILL has been nurturing its community of proud weavers—currently there are around 15 independent local and international brands in its network that integrate ANTHILL’s weaves in end products. “More than just customers, they are our circularity advocates who share our values and tell our stories the best,” says Lim. “My dream is for us to be able to build the numbers together to affect policy change shortly.”
In recent years, like-minded sustainability advocates have increasingly come together to share knowledge, expertise, or simply for much-needed moral support. For Subang, being one of the few zero-waste practitioners in the still largely traditional local fashion industry can sometimes feel lonely. “But I think now we are starting to have a community,” she observes. “And because of this community, the idea of sustainability gets to spread further.”
Jessie Jiang
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Asia News Network
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