Is it Possible to Scale Circularity in the Fashion Industry? - Parafina Eyewear

Is it Possible to Scale Circularity in the Fashion Industry?

In recent years, the circular model has become the paradigm that will redesign the way fashion is made.

At PARAFINA we firmly believe in circularity in order to be able to talk about future fashion and we also believe that companies are the engine of change for sustainable development. To understand circularity in the fashion industry it is essential to know what it is and how this model works.  Today the fashion industry is mainly based on a linear system. Resources are extracted, transformed into products and, once used by their buyers, thrown away. For the most part, these garments have a very ephemeral life and this is not sustainable.

In order to support circularity in this industry and its scalability, there are several approaches and reflections that PARAFINA wants to put on the table and that concern us all:

First of all, do we really need all the products we buy every year? How many times do we use each garment? The culture of excessive consumption is not sustainable over time. By reducing this type of consumption and increasing the frequency of use of each garment we buy, overproduction will also have to be rebalanced. We must put an end to the ephemeral life of these products.

Investment in innovation and technology not only at the local and institutional level but also in the private sector is badly needed upstream in supply chains, so that products can be effectively sorted and better recycled, rather than discarded. It should be borne in mind that many of them end up being burned, buried, etc. polluting the environment.

-What materials do we use to make our products? Innovation must also be at the service of creation and design in order to find new materials that help to reduce environmental damage.  At PARAFINA we have been clear about this since we created our first pair of glasses, using only recycled and sustainable materials. We apply the circular economy to our production processes, giving a second life to waste that would otherwise be buried or burned in landfills. Our glasses are made from recycled and/or organic materials such as plastic from bottles, rubber from tyres or organic bamboo, transforming this waste through upcycling. What impact does this decision have: since the birth of PARAFINA, we have reused more than 3.5 million plastic bottles (PET), more than 187,000 plastic bottles (HDPE), 244,000 corks, 5,000 tyres and more than 27,000 soft drink cans.  We do this in each of our categories, sunglasses, reading glasses and screens; moreover, the qualities of these wastes give our glasses unique characteristics such as lightness, flexibility and resistance.

-Promote energy efficiency, using renewable energy for manufacturing.

-And why not: consider second-hand fashion as another purchasing option for consumers.

At PARAFINA we have been working with BCOME since this year with the aim of continuing to innovate and be faithful to our purpose: to make ecological glasses to see a better world.  Through this collaboration, we have obtained very valuable data on our Sol 2022 “Urban Waste” collection that is allowing us to better understand and measure the impacts generated throughout the value chain of our glasses, act accordingly, ensure transparency and bring it to the end customer. Thanks to BCOME, we can tell our customers that with “Urban Waste” we have saved the equivalent in water of 16 Olympic swimming pools and the equivalent in CO2 emissions generated by more than 4 million 40W LED bulbs lit for 24hrs, compared to the production of a non-ecological eyewear.

At PARAFINA we are also committed to a business philosophy based on three pillars that govern our activity: care for the planet, social commitment and sustainable growth, a Triple Impact business model, the model of companies that want to be the best, not in the world, but for the world. All of us who form part of the value chain, from producers, brands and end consumers, need to reinvent the fashion production system. (R)evolve.