R.E.D - Sri Lanka’s First Sustainable Fashion Label Up-cycles Post-Waste of Apparel Industry

20th October 2010, www.dailynews.lk

Brainchild of Sri Lankan designer Mihiri De Silva, R.E.D (Re-Engineered Design) looks at dealing with the post-waste of Sri Lanka’s apparel industry by up-cycling it and converting it into a fashion line of clothing for exports.

De Silva’s experience enabled her to channel her creativity in more ways than just design and marketing.

Part of her role at one point involved managing waste stock, comprising orders that had been paid for but were no longer wanted, items that had manufacturing faults, off-cuts and other unused fabrics and trimmings.

This entailed helping find local markets to sell ready-made garments to, designing new items suitable for buyers in India, Australia and the Middle East and making everything from patchwork quilts to duffle bags from off-cuts of fabric that would otherwise have been wasted. She realized, however, that the majority of apparel industry waste was simply being stored to only be disposed of in ways which were harmful to the environment. R.E.D only sources materials from factories certified under the Garments without Guilt scheme.

R.E.D ensures its fabrics are never manufactured using child or forced labour or in factories with discriminatory employment policies.

By sourcing its raw materials in this manner, and manufacturing clothes in the same factories that produce the salvaged waste, R.E.D has distinctively shorter lead times from order placement to delivery. R.E.D finished product is a low carbon product due to its minimum number of processes and results in the reduction of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions caused by burning and sending waste to landfill.

With R.E.D’s innovative manufacturing philosophy and with almost zero emissions from the reclaimed fabric arriving at the factory floor, R.E.D. products, when manufactured will have a lower carbon footprint than any comparable product manufactured in Sri Lanka.