Lacey Mclachlan

Environmental Yoga
October 11, 2016
Tonle: Zero Waste Fashion
Its sad to say that nowadays most people have no idea where their clothing comes from
or how its even made. With the fast passed and ever growing fashion industry, it brings many
environmental issues. Three out of the four garments that are made do end up in land waste
fields. The fashion industry has grown an alarming rate of 400%, with the growth of this industry
so is with the ever-growing sweat shops in third world countries. In this fast-passed
consummation of throw away textiles is there hope? We do have companies that are showing this
multibillion industry that they can make wonderful garments, while also helping human rights
and environmental causes. Focusing on this wonderful company that is in Cambodia called
Tonle. Tonle is a zero-waste fashion company where they focus on using every little piece of
textile they can.
Rachel Faller founder of Tonle fashion, she set out at the young age of 21 to create a
social responsible fashion label. Now at the age of 26 she started her company for her zero-waste
fashion line. In order for responsible production to take root, it needs to be shown to be
profitable without aid subsidies. She wanted to show other companies that you can be
successful without labor violations and environmental violations. She was committed to staying
with her values throughout the process of starting up her own company. Rachel Faller, I have to
say that some of my biggest heroes are my staff and other people around the world who are
making changes in their communities without any recognition. Her biggest heroes are even the
underdogs of society. She even shows much appetition to her staff, she even lists all her staff
members on her website. Going as far as to saying who work on each garment that they produce.
Tonles zero waste fashion, what is zero waste fashion? Never hearing this term before
this essay well explain what this means. Zero waste fashion is where each little scrap of textiles,
fibers and notions is used. The typical waste of factories is 40% of their textiles. Which is almost
half of the textile going into landfilled to rot and give off harmful chemicals into drinking water.
These factories will throw away the textile for reasons like too small of a scrap, materials that are

cut inefficiently and if the textile is out of season. It is estimated that factories will throw away
about one million tons of textile a year, just to be dumped into these waste lands. Throwing out
these garments has polluted 70% of Chinas lakes, rivers and streams, these are all harmful to
humans now. Tonle has uses these fabrics and textiles that factories have thrown away. Using
each piece of scraps from these fabrics. In the video, I will cite below it shows and explains the
process in what they use to make it a zero-waste company. Rachel explains that first theyll cut
out a dress, then with each excess scrap that they have theyll weave it into yarn, when the tiniest
scraps are left they turn it into paper for packaging and tags. Which makes Tonle a true zero
waste company.
Here is some statistics that shows Tonles impact:
A conventionally made t shirt uses the following resources:

4 square meters of land

2,700 liters of water, the average amount a person drinks over three years

151.2 g (1/3 lb) of chemicals and pesticides

23,537 km (14,625 miles) from USA to China and back to transport components to
factory and product back to you

3,175 kg (7,000 lbs) of carbon emissions for transportation alone

A final carbon footprint of 6 kg, approximately 20 times the weight of the t-shirt itself

Each year tonls production, in contrast to a typical manufacturer, saves the following:

10,000 kg (22,046 lbs) of materials from landfills

70,000 kg (154,324 lbs) of CO2 from entering the atmosphere

200 kg (441 lbs) of pesticides

46,266,600 gallons of water

When you think about Cambodias factories they are mostly sweat shops with unsafe

conditions. Most factories have harmful chemicals that the workers are breathing in
cancerous fumes. Treating workers like modern day slaves, with unfair wages making only a

hundred dollars a month. Often in these factories they are denied sick leave, often working
10- 12 hours a day to keep up with unfair deadlines. They also avoid child labor laws where
168 million are under the age of 14. Even 18% of human trafficking victims are exploited for
this labor. How is Tonle different for each of these factories? Tonle pays above the minimum
wage in Cambodia only 153 dollars a month. Tonle works with a non-profit organization that
looks for women that are coming out of difficult situations, that are looking for stable work.
They dont even have to have prior work skills; theyll teach these women the skills how to
make these garments with opportunities to get raises and promotions. Many of their
employees have no prior experiences that are single mothers, disadvantage women and HIV
positive. They pay competitive wages, capping at eight hours of a work day and flexible
scheduling. They have ventilated rooms with many fans as you will see in the video. The
company also displays picture of each employee that they have in the company on there
website. Will credit the employees by telling what employees worked on the product. Also,
giving citing to who model the product. Tonle will also let the workers model the products.

How Tonle makes their products and what they use. They take waste from other factories.
Tonle will go to landfilleds and remint markets. Finding the best textile to that will work for the
garments they produce. About 90% is recycled materials from other factories the other 10% is
from local suppliers. The smallest of scraps are woven into yarn to make shall, scarfs and tote
bags. Even tinier scraps that cant be woven into yarn are used to packaging materials and tags.
They use natural dyes to dye their fabric. About 80% of their dyes are made from soymilk and
lemons. They look for artisans to make their notions, handcrafted buttons, belts and zippers. If
they cant find the notions that they need for the garments theyll take cast offs from other
factories. For screen printed products are designed by hand. They use nontoxic water based inks
and pastels. They try to make the smallest carbon foot print and biggest social benefit.
The advantages of zero waste fashion do out way the disadvantages. Fully supporting
Rachel Fallers idea of the social responsible fashion line. As a designer after each garment I
made I have a lot of waste; not knowing what to do with the waste I ended up donating or
disposing of the textiles. Now through this zero-waste idea I learned that theyre many ways to

reuses textiles. Consumers really should learn where their fashion comes from before they buy
from companies.
Polt, Rich. "Rachel Faller Launches Socially Conscious Fashions in Cambodia." The
Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 20 Sept. 2013. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/520983811/tonle-zero-waste-fair-fashion (Video)
"About Us." Tonl. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.
Https://www.facebook.com/Lucyannmcguire. "Q&A with Rachel Faller of Ethical Fashion
Brand, Tonle Oh So London." Oh So London. N.p., 01 Oct. 2016. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.
Ruiz-Grossman, Sarah. "These Stylish Clothes Were Once Scraps On A Factory Floor." The
Huffington Post. Huffington Post, 25 Oct. 2016. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.
http://www.aol.com/video/view/negative-waste-fashion/581226bc134aa17b72ebb316/ (video)
Wilt /, By Kate. "Tonl: Zero-Waste Fair Fashion in Cambodia." |. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.
(www.dw.com), Deutsche Welle. "Cambodia Raises Minimum Wage for Textile Workers | Asia |
DW.COM | 29.09.2016." DW.COM. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.