Kleiderly & M-24 - Discovering sustainable and circular solutions within fashion and textiles.
Alina Bassi and Mat Dusting are two social entrepreneurs using their businesses to create impactful change in the sustainability sphere.
Taking materials that would otherwise be obsolete and fashioning them into something new.
“Sustainability is everywhere, especially with younger audiences who are much more in tune and concerned with where things are made and coming from. ”
– Mat Dusting
Our daily lives are enriched by textiles. It is a multi-billion-pound industry around the world, and in many countries, the most important sector of their economy. However, the textile/fashion industry doesn't always get a good rep; it is one of the most globally polluting industries, second only to oil [1].
Fast fashion has a massive impact on the planet. Not only is the industry responsible for 10% of humanity's carbon emissions [2], but without any effort to make a change, the industry's share of the carbon budget could jump to 26% by 2050. This phenomenon is fueled by constantly changing fashion trends and the "need" by consumers to always have the latest runway looks. Fast-moving trends mean that more than 50% of fast fashion clothing is discarded within a year of purchase [3]. The majority of these textiles end up in landfills, even those that are recyclable.
The last decade has seen us start to shift from a fast-fashion, wasteful lifestyle, to more sustainable, circular and earth-friendly alternatives. There has been a drastic increase in the demand for sustainable options with the rise of the conscious consumer, whether that be clothing made from renewable or recycled fabrics, or environmentally friendly and ethically made products.
As consumers become more knowledgeable, they are demanding businesses prove that they are indeed doing the ethical and sustainable work that they claim to be. Consumers are no longer taking companies’ words at face value. In a 2019 survey, 47% of consumers said they would spend more on products that were sustainable, with Gen Z respondents saying they would pay 50-100% more for those sustainable goods. [4]
Creating a circular fashion ecosystem where products are designed with recyclability in mind could help solve some of the problems created by the fashion industry. According to one study, solving the environmental and social problems created by fashion would provide a £144 billion benefit to the global economy by 2030 [5]. It would reduce the use of non-renewable resources, lower carbon emissions, and decrease the volume of textiles sent and dumped into landfills.
We are starting to shift away from the take, make, dispose model that has fuelled consumerism, and move towards more circular solutions. It’s an amazing opportunity, and one that two trailblazers we had the pleasure of speaking to have jumped at.
Alina Bassi, CEO of Kleiderly, a Berlin start-up turning textile waste into sunglasses, and Mat Dusting, CEO of M-24, designer of tarpaulin-recycled bags & accessories, talk to Marmalade about the fashion & sustainability sphere, how they came to start their businesses, and how much the conversation about fashion’s social and environmental conscience has grown over the last couple of years.
1. Alina, Mat, tell us a bit about your businesses and how they came to life?
Alina (Kleiderly)
I have a background in Chemical Engineering and a passion for sustainability. After years of designing factories that recycle waste, I decided to focus my energy on textile waste. During a trip to Tanzania, I saw firsthand where textile waste ends up, and realised how big the problem is. 87% of all textiles used for clothing ends up in landfills, where they cannot decompose, or they are burnt in incinerators. Kleiderly solves the problem by recycling textiles and using them as substitutes for petroleum-derived plastics. We are creating a circular economy within the fashion industry with an award-winning and patent-pending process. We have recently created our own eyewear collection, to show end consumers that an old T-shirt can now be recycled into your next pair of glasses.
“Kleiderly solves the problem by recycling textiles and using them as substitutes for petroleum-derived plastics. We are creating a circular economy within the fashion industry with an award-winning and patent-pending process.”
Photo Credit: Alina Bassi
Mat (M-24)
I studied industrial design at Aston University and naturally, through a degree like that, you talk about reusing materials and challenging the way that stuff is made. During my final year, a friend of mine and I were talking about reusing existing materials and turning them into resellable products as part of a module.
After leaving university, I came back to my family farm in Somerset. My dad had quite a bit of tarpaulin on the farm, which is an extremely durable material with branding on the side which comes from the truck it was covering. I took a chunk of that material and fashioned it into a ski and snowboard bag, which led me to pursue the idea of reusing the truck tarpaulin materials into ski and snowboard products. The Prince’s Trust was able to help me at the initial start of the journey.
I was quite keen on using UK manufacturers. We were sourcing all the materials from the UK and it didn’t make a lot of sense to send things abroad and then bring them back again. I was able to find some local manufactures in my area and then moved to a factory that was able to help me create more consistent designs.
Photo Credit: Mat Dusting
2. How would you both describe your core mission and purpose?
Alina (Kleiderly)
Every second an entire truck full of textiles goes to a landfill. Our mission is to keep textiles away from landfills and upcycle them into new products, to create a circular fashion industry. Kleiderly wants to give textile waste another chance at a meaningful life. At the same time, we want to raise awareness of the problem and help consumers make more conscious fashion choices.
Mat (M-24)
My initial goal was to demonstrate to the world what is possible when you take old materials and turn them into something different. As things have developed, my goal from a sustainability perspective, is to reuse as much of the material as possible and design a supply chain that is capable of recycling all of Britain's truck tarpaulin. We have the process set up in the background that can do this and hopefully, as M-24 progresses, we can eat more into that and recycle as much as possible.
“My goal from a sustainability perspective, is to reuse as much of the material as possible and design a supply chain that is capable of recycling all of Britain’s truck tarpaulin.”
3. Were there any misconceptions you had about sustainability in fashion before you started your own businesses?
Alina (Kleiderly)
I assumed that end consumers had more knowledge about the problem. Whilst the problem of fast fashion is well known, the problem of clothing waste is lesser-known, so a large part of our work also involves sharing knowledge and resources.
Photo Credit: Jonas Holthaus
4. Fast fashion has become seemingly inescapable over the last couple of years, do you think that consumers are slowly starting to shift away from this trend?
Alina (Kleiderly)
Consumers are slowly shifting towards sustainable fashion but there is still a lot that needs to be done. The more affordable sustainable fashion becomes, the larger the volume of consumers that are interested.
Mat (M-24)
In the first few years of M-24 people didn’t seem to be as bothered that the products were recycled or from renewable resources, but now the whole thing has changed. Sustainability is everywhere, especially with younger audiences (16-32) who are much more in tune and concerned with where things are made and coming from. The worst part is consumerism, we have to be careful about the volume of things that we buy.
“The worst part is consumerism, we have to be careful about the volume of things that we buy. ”
5. What advice do you have for consumers who want to start buying more sustainably, but just don't know where to start?
Alina (Kleiderly)
I would suggest that they read our Kleiderly blog or follow our social media where we share tips on how to become more sustainable. I would also recommend them to buy fewer, but much better-quality pieces - or look into a capsule wardrobe. There are many new sustainable fashion brands using better quality materials and packaging such as Armed Angels.
Mat (M-24)
You have to take a step back and look at it from the bigger picture. Do your research. If you're spending a lot of money on items, research where that product is made, what it is made from and don’t be sucked into people just telling you it’s from renewable sources or sustainable fabrics.
Overall, try to buy less and when you do, buy from more ethical sources. Find brands that are operating sustainably, they are more likely to consider factors such as materials, supply chain, workers' rights etc.
6. Who have you got your eyes on and think are doing amazing things within the sustainability sector?
Alina (Kleiderly)
There are many, but I would like to highlight Daria Deh, Armed Angels, Vinted, Vino Kilo, Giftd.
Mat (M-24)
I recently heard about Rent the Runway and I think it is a great idea to have clothes that you can rent for a brief time because the person giving you those items is also then in charge of the lifecycle.
There is also a great company called Provenance, Jessi Baker is the founder and CEO. What they have developed is a way of using blockchain technology to track the supply chain of where stuff is made. They can track the entire supply chain, so everything is quality checked from source to you without human interference which helps companies be honest and not pull the wool over people's eyes.
7. What does the future hold for Kleiderly and M-24?
Alina (Kleiderly)
At Kleiderly we hope to have many more products available, made from our material. We also have many exciting products we are producing in collaboration with many fashion brands, which we look forward to sharing with the public soon.
Mat (M-24)
We have noticed massive amounts of international potential from countries like Germany, Switzerland and Japan that value and have sustainability on their radar. It's been a fascinating discovery over the last year or so to see which countries are more in tune with sustainability, and so the future for us is to potentially utilise that knowledge to have more of a presence in these countries. I certainly see international expansion as the next big thing for us.
8. Alina, outside of Kleiderly you've also co-founded Founderland - tell us a bit about that and how it came to be?
Alina (Kleiderly)
After taking part in the Google for Startups programme, I realised how much I wanted to be part of a community of women of colour entrepreneurs. My co-founder Deborah Choi and I struggled to find this community, so we decided to build it with Stephanie von Behr. We support women of colour to get funded, by facilitating warm introductions to investors and providing accelerator programmes to educate founders on fundraising. We also help investors diversify their portfolios. We were recently funded by Google.org.
9. Mat, you've recently started GPOWERUK, tell us a little bit about what you do?
Mat (M-24)
As M-24 has grown I've been able to operate the business in a more offhand manner, and my investor was keen to know what’s up next for me. At the time, I explained how there's a looming energy crisis, so we started GPOWERUK in April of this year to help commercial businesses and individual's move away from traditional fossil fuels and reduce their carbon footprint by becoming energy independent.
This year has been a great example of why that needs to happen, as we’ve seen energy prices go through the roof. If smaller businesses can negate the need to depend on energy companies and operate on their terms then that’s a great thing.
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