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- Security Matters (SMX) aims to use its technology for ‘take/re-use-make-recycle’ in the fashion industry
- The global fashion industry is estimated to be worth €1 trillion
- SMX has created a mark and trace technology
Security Matters (SMX) aims to use its technology for ‘take/re-use-make-recycle’ in the fashion industry.
The global fashion industry is estimated to be worth €1 trillion and is the seventh largest economy in the world.
While fashion is a glamorous industry, it contributes a significant amount of waste and negatively impacts the environment. It produces 500,000 microfibres that end up in the ocean as microfibres are usually too small to be filtered out by waste treatment plants. 500,000 of these microfibres are equivalent to 3 million barrels of oil.
As a result, leading fashion designers and retailers are moving away from the linear model (take-make-dispose) to a circular model (take/re-use-make-recycle).
The circular model reduces costs and capitalises on the re-use of existing products.
Fashion retailer Zara owner, Inditex, is working with the charity Cáritas to install between 1,500 and 2,000 garment collection bins in Spain’s major cities.
Zara has pledged with Cáritas to invest $3.5 million to upgrade Cáritas garment recycling facilities and is collaborating with Lenzing to create a premium fibre known as Refibra from its cotton scraps.
Designer Tommy Hilfiger, aims to use post-consumer recycled textile fibres in at least 70 per cent of its business divisions with the ambition to increase the recycled content year on year.
Target will also invest $1 million in post-consumer textile recycling.
Other fashion retailers aiming to make a difference in the world waste issue include Gap, Hugo Boss, H&M and many more.
SMX has created a mark and trace technology that puts the infrastructure that enables an Equilibrium Economy within the fashion industry by offering an end-to-end service: fibre-to-fabric.
This provides manufacturers and retailer supply chains transparency, brand liability and overall cost savings by speeding up the sorting and recycling process.
Using SMX’s technology, companies will be able to invsiably mark, trace and store data on fibres across three life cycles: fibres to production, production to commercial, commercial to recycling and reuse.
The data is then stored on the blockchain providing full supply chain transparency.
Using the proprietary reader, the marked fibres and garments are easy to identify, filter and extract.
Raw fibres include wool, organic cotton, polyester, ect.
CEO Haggai Alon says that with fashion week in September, it is the perfect time to showcase its technology.
“We are the only technology company with the unique capability to mark, trace and verify raw materials (fibres), through every stage of the supply chain across the three lifecycles and log this information on the blockchain,” he said.
There is an estimated $100 billion opportunity in the fashion world from the re-use of garments, textiles and fibres.
“Given the rising social and legislative pressures, many fashion brands have taken the leap to change the way they operate to reduce their carbon footprint and promote a safer environment,” Haggai said.
