Sustainability

How is iinouiio Sustainable?

The iinouiio project believes in using the textiles we have for as long as possible, to find new uses for them, dispose wisely and consume thoughtfully. But when it’s time to buy something new, it might be worth reading this. 

According to ‘Case Study 181’, a report compiled by the British Textile Technology Group, funded by the Energy Efficiency Office (Department of the Environment) and published by the Economist Intelligence Unit in 1993 ‘Textiles and the Environment’ there are huge savings in energy, water and pollution from choosing recycled wool made in the UK.

In addition to the significant energy savings:

Fresh water consumption and effluent production are greatly reduced because processes such as raw wool scouring and dyeing do not need to be repeated.

Old woollen garments, synthetic garments and factory waste are usually dumped in landfill sites. When wool decomposes it produces methane, a gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect. By recycling wool, methane production is reduced because less material goes to landfill sites. Old synthetic garments will not decompose.

In 1993, the for-runner to iinouiio (Evergreen) worked out that if everyone in the UK bought just one woollen product each year - but chose recycled wool made in Yorkshire, on average it would save approximately:

• 371 million gallons of water (the UK reservoir holds around 300 million gallons).
• 480.8 tonnes of chemical dyestuffs.
• 4,517 million days of average family electricity consumption (1.125KW per garment).

Because iinouiio is using knitwear thrown away it doesn't go through all the dying processes as you can see from the stats above this is making a huge difference and is why you should be using out yarns!!