One of "sins" committed by the fast fashion industry may be a large quantity of clothing thrown away annually in many countries across the world.

　安く大量に出回るファストファッションの「罪」の１つが廃棄される衣料が大量にのぼることだろう。

 When you find the neck of a dress shirt you purchased in a fast fashion brand store got frayed, what will you do with it? You may perhaps give up wearing it. You may opt to buy a new one rather than have it repaired. More often than not, consumers buy new clothes each time they are put on the market with the result that old clothes are abandoned in large quantities. This fact should not be casually fluffed off. According to a fiscal 2009 report “on 3R (recycle, reuse and repair) of textiles” released by the Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, an independent administrative agency, a hefty 1,713,000 tons of textiles were discharged across Japan during the year. Clothing accounted for 942,000 tons of the total.

　例えば、あるファストファッション・ブランド店で購入したワイシャツの襟元がほつれてしまったとき、消費者はどうするのか。大半は捨てるだろう。修繕しなくとも安く買い替えられるからだ。商品が発売される度に買い替え、古くなった衣服は大量に廃棄されるという事実は見逃すことはできない。２００９年度の（独）中小企業基盤整備機構の「繊維製品３Ｒ関連調査事業」報告書によると、わが国の繊維製品全体の排出量は１７１．３万トンであり、その中で最も多いのが衣料品で、その量は９４．２万トンに上る。

 As part of its initiatives to find a solution to the problem, the organization pushes ahead with a project to promote recycling of discarded clothing. The report put the recycling, reuse and repair rates of total abandoned textiles at 9.5%, 10.0% and 2.6%, respectively. The corresponding ratios for clothing were 11.3%, 13.4% and 1.6%, respectively.

　この問題への対策として、使わなくなった衣料品の回収事業推進されている。繊維製品全体のリサイクル率は９．５％、リユース率は１０．０％、リペア率は２．６％。うち、衣料品はリサイクル率が１１．３％、リユース率１３．４％、リペア率１．６％となっている。

 In one of individual cases, UNIQLO promotes a campaign to recycle all garments it dealt in. The company said it recovered about 5 million pieces of clothing in 2012. How is this campaign successful? UNIQLO reported 928.6 billion yen in sales across Japan in the 2008 business year (from September 1, 2007 to August 31, 2008). Assuming that each UNIQLO item is sold at an average price of 1,000 yen, it sold about 900 million items in the year by simple arithmetic. Since the company recovered 5 million items, its annual recovery rate comes to roughly 0.5%. Even considering that it is based on simple calculation, the rate is still appallingly low. UNIQLO needs to make a further improvement.

　個別の事例として、ユニクロは全商品リサイクル活動を展開しており、１２年の総回収点数は約５００万点となっている。この活動が果たしてどれほどの成果を上げているのだろう。ユニクロの衣料（小物も含む）を１点平均１、０００円と仮定し、０８年８月期（０７年９月１日～０８年８月３１日）の国内ユニクロ事業の売上高９２８６億円から単純計算すると、約９億点の売り上げがあったと推定できる。年間回収点数が５００万であるから、回収率はおおよそ０・５％程度となる。単純計算としてもかなり低い回収率だ。さらなる改善が求められている。

(By Kazuhiro Kawamura & Kneto Isogai)

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