// Ethical Fashion Group, co-founded by former British Fashion Council boss Harold Tillman has signed a deal with Hydrogen Utopia to turn unused clothes into fuel
// HUI’s technology will help the fashion industry ‘become part of the solution, rather than part of the problem’
Ethical Fashion Group, co-founded by industry veteran Harold Tillman, has teamed up with Hydrogen Utopia International (HUI), whose technology turns fabrics into carbon-free fuels.
The group represents 60,000 fashion businesses in 140 different countries, including H&M, Gucci owner Kering and Vivienne Westwood, with sustainable suppliers around the world.
Tillman is the former boss of Jaeger and previous chair of the British Fashion Council, while Hydrogen Utopia is a London company specialising in turning non-recyclable mixed waste plastic into hydrogen and other carbon-free fuels, new materials or distributed renewable heat.
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The company said that the joint venture would allow clothing manufacturers, suppliers and retailers to address the environmental impact of products made partly or wholly from non-recyclable plastics, including polyester and polyamides.
Members including Vivienne Westwood and Roland Mouret will get access to HUI’s machines, which are the size of a small house.
The clothing industry is the world’s second biggest polluter behind oil and gas, producing around 92m tonnes of textile waste every day.
Tillman said he hopes the ability to recycle the plastics used in clothing will cut the huge amounts being sent to landfills or incinerated.
Hydrogen Utopia chief executive Aleksandra Binkowska said: “It is a huge honour to win the support of Harold Tillman for the work being carried out by Hydrogen Utopia.
“Consumers are dressing themselves in plastic, often without knowing it, by buying over one trillion items of clothing a year that are destined to end up in incinerators or landfill sites.
“Our fashion pollution solution will give manufacturers access for the first time to technology that turns these items into road-fuel quality hydrogen fuel that will power the next generation of carbon-free vehicles.”
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