{"id":15387,"date":"2025-02-21T14:00:40","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T13:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?p=15387"},"modified":"2025-02-21T14:17:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T13:17:53","slug":"fabric-markets-saviour-for-the-circular-economy-or-fast-fashion-hidden-in-plain-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/15387\/fabric-markets-saviour-for-the-circular-economy-or-fast-fashion-hidden-in-plain-sight\/","title":{"rendered":"Fabric Markets: Saviour for the Circular Economy or Fast Fashion hidden in plain sight?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone is always telling you to shop local, from your favourite politician to your smarmiest neighbour, it’s a message you can\u2019t escape from. Shop local, shop sustainable. The assumption is the two go hand in hand, but is that really the case?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Every Saturday morning in the heart of Utrecht, Breedstraat is transformed into Lapjesmarkt, the oldest and largest textile market in the Netherlands. Each vendor crowding the street, competing for attention from passersby. It\u2019s easy to imagine that nothing has changed and that these same vendors flogged their wares here\u00a0400 years ago when the market first began. As soon as the illusion is setting in, you are dragged back to the 21<\/span>st<\/span> century by the packaging – which on closer inspection reads \u2018Made in China\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Vendor displaying his wares, the packaging clearly states ‘Made in China’<\/p><\/div>\n

While these vendors may not have been selling their wares four centuries ago, there are still several long-tenured members including Stephanie, who has worked at the market for over three decades. \u201cWe\u2019re the exception here,\u201d she said, pointing to her stall, \u201cwe only sell fabrics produced in Holland. Over the last 10 years or so that’s become rare. Most stalls bring products in from all over the world, but mostly China.\u201d <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, the sustainability of these local markets must\u00a0be\u00a0called into question, right? Not necessarily says PhD researcher Lara-Marie Bodirsky, who is\u00a0working on \u2018Accelerating the Transition to a Circular Textile Economy\u2019, \u201c<\/span>if you talk about fabrics, you probably have a different reason to buy them. If I were to go buy fabrics, I would buy them to make my own garments. And I think then the whole mindset comes into play…<\/span>when I make something, I am very careful about how I care for it, and I wear it a lot more often, and I make it with the intention that I like it for a long time. I know the effort that goes in there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Vendor taking a brief break surrounded by his products<\/p><\/div>\n

While consumer behaviour is important, Lara\u00a0insists policymakers must act too. Recent policies have had\u00a0varying success, take President Trump\u2019s recent\u00a0tariffs on foreign goods for example. In 2018 the <\/span>Department of Commerce<\/span><\/a> revealed this method was easily exploitable and has a greater impact on the domestic consumer. On the other hand, the EU has launched a promising new campaign called the <\/span>Extended Producer Responsibility<\/span><\/a> model, \u201c<\/span>this is the idea that the producers are responsible for the product, even after they are\u00a0sold on the market,\u201d Lara explains, \u201cthen that money can be used for circularity, for example, for infrastructure, market development, recycling, you name it.<\/span>\u201d <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, local textile markets occupy a grey area, while better than buying from fast fashion sites, the products are subject to the same unsustainable farming methods. A\u00a0<\/span>2021 study<\/span><\/a> showed that <\/span>almost 2000 liters of water<\/span> are\u00a0needed to produce 1kg of cotton, but this varies drastically from country to country with Brazil requiring just 17 litres of water while\u00a0<\/span>Turkmenistan needs nearly 14,000 liters. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite this Lara still believes these markets can be part of the circular textile economy, as long as there is a change in the overconsumption mindset associated with fast fashion, <\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/b>We need to consume less, and we need to use our items more because, I think on average, people really don’t use items as much as they would last in many cases<\/span>\u201d. <\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone is always telling you to shop local, from your favourite politician to your smarmiest neighbour, it’s a message you can\u2019t escape from. Shop local, shop sustainable. The assumption is the two go hand in hand, but is that really the case?\u00a0 Every Saturday morning in the heart of Utrecht, Breedstraat is transformed into Lapjesmarkt, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3758,"featured_media":15559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[485,35],"class_list":["post-15387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acls","tag-fast-fashion","tag-sustainability","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFabric Markets: Saviour for the Circular Economy or Fast Fashion hidden in plain sight?\u00a0 - International Journalism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fabric Markets: Saviour for the Circular Economy or Fast Fashion hidden in plain sight?\u00a0 - International Journalism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Everyone is always telling you to shop local, from your favourite politician to your smarmiest neighbour, it’s a message you can\u2019t escape from. 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