Primark promises to make clothes more sustainable - and affordable

Discount fashion retailer Primark has announced new sustainability commitments but said it will keep prices "affordable."

Primark says its clothes will be made using recycled or "more sustainably sourced materials" by 2030.

The firm has also promised to halve carbon emissions across its value chain.

Critics voiced concerns this will be hard to track as fast-fashion supply chains have often lacked transparency.

In a statement, the global retailer said it will also design its clothes to be more durable so they can be recycled and last longer - without increasing its prices.

It said it will "pursue a living wage for workers in its supply chain," but has not specified how much this wage would be in the countries where it has employees or when this would happen. Primark has 397 stores across 14 countries and employs around 70,000 people.

The company's chief executive Paul Marchant said: "Sustainability shouldn't be priced at a premium that only a minority can afford."

"Because of who we are, we believe we have the opportunity to make more sustainable fashion choices affordable to all."

Noelle Hatley, lecturer in fashion business at Manchester Metropolitan University's Fashion Institute said however that using language such as "ambitions" and "pursuing" is vague.

"They need to be setting measurable targets, how many suppliers and factories and by what date will living wages be paid?"

Over the next year, Primark said it will make all men's, women's and kids' entry price point t-shirts from sustainably sourced cotton.

"Without transparency of costings it is difficult to know how they can achieve this as the fast fashion business model relies on 'unsustainable' or 'below real cost' prices."

Though she said the announcement is encouraging, Ms Hatley added that if prices are being maintained, it "would be good for them to share how they are achieving this, for example, are they accepting a lower margin, or is the factory being paid the same for what could be more expensive materials?"

Kate Fletcher, research professor at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at the University of the Arts London said that the problem of fast-fashion is volume and questions remain about how the firm are going to put limits around how many pieces they produce.

"The real change comes with the detail not in the commitments and aspirations," she explained.

"What I'd like to see are details on what the real and living wages would be in different countries."

The Republic of Ireland-based company was one of a number of retailers that attracted strong criticism in 2013 after more than 1,100 workers were killed in the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh.

Primark, one of the 23 brands being produced at the factory, extended payments to victims and families affected.

A worker in a Bangladeshi factory typically earns around 10p an hour.

"I'd also like to see specific descriptions of sustainable materials and what percentage of recycled material is actually involved," Prof Fletcher added.

While the environmental impact of flying is now well known, fashion uses more energy than both aviation and shipping combined. The industry also accounts for nearly 20% of wastewater.

Continuing to actively wear a piece of clothing for just nine months longer can diminish its environmental impacts by 20-30%, in the UK, according to the recycling charity WRAP.

UK citizens buy more new clothes than any other European country and throw away over a million tonnes of clothing every year.

The global fashion industry is estimated to have produced around 2.1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2018 - equivalent to the combined emissions of the UK, France and Germany.