Make Fashion Greener in Birmingham

• Mar. 7 by Chloe Botting (1)

Primark is probably one of Birmingham’s most popular retailers for anyone looking for a bargain. It is like a never ending sale of high street fashion and unbelievably low costs. In terms of saving your pennies you cannot go wrong, but saving the environment is another issue.

The idea is called the sustainable clothing action plan and it kicked off at London Fashion Week with a selection of eco fashion. The UK’s sustainability minister Lord Philip Hunt launched the scheme as a way of making fashion less damaging to the environment. According to the minister the UK’s textile and clothing sector produces around 3.1million tonnes of C02 a year and 1.5 million tonnes of unwanted clothing that end up as landfill.

High Street retailers Marks and Spencer and Tesco have already signed up to taking part in the project:

Retailers such as Primark are often accused of using chemicals, fertilisers and worst of all child labour. This is why it is important that other retailers join Marks and Spencer and Tesco in helping our fashion industry to become more eco friendly.

“We want to make sure that when clothing is retailed people have information so they know where it comes from, how its been produced, is it sustainable, and when people give up their clothing when they no longer want to wear it rather than throw it away in the bin it is recycled or used by other people.” (Lord Philip Hunt)