Why so much recycled clothing is still going in the garbage

Article excerpt:

Products made from recycled polyester weren't the only items that drew criticism from experts as part of Marketplace's review of so-called sustainable hang tags. 

Wren Montgomery, a business professor at the Ivey Business School in London, Ont., pointed to several of what she calls "textbook examples" of greenwashing across the products Marketplace purchased.

A pair of shorts from Lululemon included a tag that lists the lining of the pockets as 100 per cent recycled polyester but the body of the shorts as 95 per cent nylon and five per cent elastane. 

Montgomery calls it a classic "shiny toy" example of greenwashing, when a company chooses to give marketing attention to a very small portion of a product as a means of distracting consumers from overall impact.

"I am generally not very confident that a product or company is sustainable when their marketing is heavily reliant on vague and confusing claims. If you are really walking the walk, why would you waste so much time on empty talk?" Montgomery said.