Belgian jeans are the most sustainable in the world

11/02/2021

By recycling used jeans, a Belgian company is selling quality denim that is much more environmentally friendly than any other denim on the market to date.

The production of traditional jeans is extremely polluting. Denim fabric undergoes several chemical treatments to colour it, make it waterproof (synthetic resins, formaldehyde) and give it an aged or faded look (chlorine, potassium permanganate). Not to mention the amount of water used, which would be equivalent to that in an Olympic-sized swimming pool for a single pair of jeans.

With the support of Wouter Torfs and Anne Chapelle, a young Antwerp company has set itself the challenge of producing jeans as ecologically as possible.

HNST stands for "honest"

The end result is a denim made of 56% recycled cotton fibre. No other brand on the world market achieves such a percentage! The remaining 44% consists of cotton, Tencel and eucalyptus cellulose, all environmentally friendly and produced in Europe. Because, as Lander Desmedt, CEO of HNST explains, "These materials are necessary for firmness, because trousers made with only recycled fibres would be of lower quality and would tear or rip more easily."

Six models for women and six for men are already available in store or via the website. And the product range is set to gradually expand, with t-shirts, tights and underwear that are just as sustainable.