Each year millions of tons of pre-consumer textile waste is created as American companies create everything from socks to draperies. Sadly a good portion of these fabrics is carted off to landfills. Fortunately, there are companies like Martex Fiber who are experts at textile recycling.

Earlier this year, Martex Fiber announced their “No Fiber Left Behind” campaign. Martex is challenging every textile mill to stop sending the scraps to the dump and commit to recycling, which will not only improve the environment, but can save the mills money.

Kassandra Braun, of Martex Fiber, told me “many mills don’t know there are alternatives to the dump. Education is a big problem.” In fact, she explained, mills are paying haulers to remove the textile waste and take it to the landfill.
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Adidas Group, the world’s second largest sportswear brand, has made a commitment to end the discharge of hazardous chemicals from within its supply chain by 2020. Over the next seven weeks, the company will develop a roadmap to guide the actions of its supply chain, as well as drive the sportswear industry towards elimination of hazardous discharge.

The announcement is in response to a Greenpeace campaign which highlighted the extent to which hazardous chemicals are used and discharged by the textile industry. Greenpeace’s Detox campaign linked major brands to polluting facilities in China.

In a July report called Dirty Laundry, Greenpeace aired the pollution habits of a couple large textile facilities. These facilities were found to be discharging hazardous chemicals that disrupt hormones, and threaten human health. The brands linked to these facilities included Puma, Nike, Adidas, Lacoste, H&M, Abercrombie & Fitch, Converse, Calvin Klein, and several others. Continue reading ‘adidas joins nike and puma to slowly stop polluting china’s water’ »

A company is only as green as its supply chain. For many businesses, relying on Federal Express and UPS to deliver packages is an everyday activity. Fortunately for those who use those shipping services, sending packages is getting slightly less damaging to the environment. And for the shipping companies, it’s also getting less costly.

FedEx recently issued its 2010 Global Citizenship Update, and in it the company outlined its progress on sustainable initiatives.

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