The Hamburg retailer Tchibo GmbH has been using organic cotton for many years, which does not require artificial pesticides, fertilizers or genetically modified seeds. Their share in the textile range of the multichannel provider is 97 percent. Now there is another sustainable alternative: recycled cotton, because the company has managed to extract this from production leftovers and integrate it into new collections.
The result is two pieces from the Hello Earth Essentials collection made from 20 percent recycled cotton and up to 80 percent CmiA (Cotton made in Africa) organic cotton: wide-leg jeans (for 39.99 euros ) and a midi denim skirt (for 29.99 euros).
Tchibo’s fiber expert Cristina Gaack explains that the path to these two products was not easy: “Basically, used clothing is difficult to process as a raw material and is therefore not available in large quantities. This is due to the fact that the majority of used clothing consists of non-recyclable material mixtures and can therefore not yet be reused. Only a small proportion (about 1 percent) of old clothing is processed into new fibres. In addition, the recycling processes are still being developed, the qualities are often poorer and not suitable for clothing.”
Recycled cotton from production leftovers
The Hamburg-based company uses certified yarns to control the origin of the raw material. The processing works mechanically, with old textiles or production residues being sorted by colour, cleaned and then broken up into the smallest possible fibers. These are then spun into new yarn, which saves water, pesticides, raw materials, acreage and energy compared to fresh fibers.
According to the fiber expert, the quality of the recycled cotton has the same good wearing properties as new cotton; in fact, one often sees and feels no difference.
“However, due to the recycling process, the fibers are shorter and have a more irregular surface, somewhat like the one known from the “used look”. This is because the fibers become brittle when they are crushed. That’s why there are currently very few products that are made from 100 percent recycled cotton,” explains Gaack.
“Currently, new and recycled cotton fibers are mostly mixed in the textile industry – we do it that way too. However, recycled cotton is not limited to the textile industry, it can also be used in the paper industry, for example. New technologies are already being worked on to optimize the processing of cotton so that it can be 100 percent reused,” adds the fiber expert.
Tchibo recently launched its own sustainable women’s fashion label called Nah/Studio, which is now also available on the company’s website.