Textile waste has been steadily growing to an incomprehensible scale as the years go by. There is no shortage of statistics and articles detailing the disastrous byproducts from the fast fashion industry. To give a glimpse of just how frightening this issue is – approximately hundred million tonnes of clothing waste is generated annually. Each cotton shirt requires 2700 litres of water to make, with other fabrics such as denim jeans using up thrice that amount. It is no surprise that the fashion industry itself is responsible for 20% of wasted water. Water consumption aside, the toxic gases and chemical released by the billions of clothes during decomposition at landfills seep into the ground and harm the environment.
When faced with enormous statistics like these, and an urge to incite change, it is easy to fall into the “small fish” or “herd mentality” mindset. Why sacrifice comfort for a sustainability cause when you, as an average citizen, do not have a say in what these fashion companies are doing? Our answer to that is, as consumers, you do indeed possess destabilising force on these fast fashion monoliths. It might take time, but, similar to how brands like Uniqlo, Tiktok, Apple, have become ubiquitous to us simply through excessive consumer use, there is a possibility to rebel against the unjust waste of resources by detaching from monoliths, and establishing a new standard. It is very much within an individual’s power to be part of a paradigm shift.
Our mission at Tenko is to create a completely user oriented fashion space to not only fill a creative gap in clothing, but to contribute to sustainability by adopting a Print-On-Demand system. By only designing shirts when ordered, we eliminate overproduction, and thus greatly reduce waste from the company’s side of the transaction. Furthermore, we have plans to further reduce waste by refining the processes we have in place in the future. Tenko is not a business, or a brand, but a movement – a change.