Circularity in action: how organisations are progressing the circular UK fashion industry
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Two clothing-stuffed stock trolleys outside a charity shop have a sign taped to them - £1 to fill a bag.
It’s a powerful reminder of just how much overproduction the global fashion industry is responsible for. Even resale points like charity shops, part of the circular model that aims to keep items in use and reduce waste, are drowning under the weight of unwanted textiles. They’re almost giving them away and they can’t get rid of them.
If consumers can’t soak up all this excess, then something else needs to be done with it.
The Fashion Industry Is Positive About Circularity
The concept of a circular fashion model is increasingly supported by the industry. In fact, 81% of UK brands and retailers have included circularity as part of their five-year strategy, according to an interim report from the Circular Fashion Innovation Network (CFIN).
Founded in 2023, the CFIN was created with the goal of accelerating the UK towards a circular fashion ecosystem by 2032. It is led by the British Fashion Council (BFC) and leading trade association UK Fashion and Textile (UKFT) in partnership with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The report also found that 66% of these organisations have already implemented at least one circular initiative.
Interestingly, circular product design was the most widely adopted or considered initiative (80%). But although the CFIN report highlights the importance of circular product design, it doesn’t define this as a circular business model.
It’s a critical component in enabling these models, which include reuse, repair and takebacks, and something that brands should be doing. But it doesn’t move the needle on a circular fashion industry on its own.
Circular design also creates future benefit – textiles that are easier to resell, reuse or recycle in the future – without addressing the existing problem of excess textiles or overproduction in general.
Brands may be embracing circular product design faster than other activities because they feel that they have the capability to make changes in this area on their own. Whereas, implementing a more all-encompassing circular model for the fashion industry clearly requires collaboration.
It’s here that we see organisations across the UK fashion industry stepping up.
Collaborate Is Vital to Drive Innovation
One example is collaborative circularity project, Repurpose. Launched by circularity platform Recomme, ACS Clothing – a clothing rental and renewal company – and the UKFT, Repurpose is a circularity processing and innovation hub.
Brands and retailers can send unwanted textiles – including returns that can’t be resold and those donated by customers – as well as damaged items to Repurpose’s facility to be assessed. Repurpose then determines the best circular option for each item. This might be repair, resale, rental, or even textile-to-textile recycling in partnership with innovators in this field.
What’s particularly interesting about the Repurpose initiative is its plans to drive innovation. This includes investing in textile recycling start-ups and running commercial pilots for their tech.
Recomme’s white labelled circularity offering to retailers helps to direct unwanted textiles into Repurpose’s hub, giving it the volume needed to help improve and develop new textile recycling innovations. This includes scaling them over time and overcoming challenges in sorting and processing multi-material garments.
Stats from WRAP show that there’s a long way to go before material recycling becomes the norm. In 2022 the UK generated 1.45 million tonnes of used textiles. Of the 650 kilotonnes that were diverted from landfill and waste, only 34 kilotonnes were actually recycled in the UK.
According to the Circle Economy Foundation, of all the materials the global textile industry uses, just 0.3% come from recycled sources. What’s also telling is that most of this comes from recycled PET bottles rather than recycled textiles.
Textile-to-Textile Recycling Is Starting to Scale
Essentially, the global fashion industry isn’t currently turning unwanted textiles into new ones.
But it can be done even if it isn’t happening at mass scale yet. And interestingly, given the small percentage use of recycled PET bottles in textile production, repurposing innovation from another sector is one way to do it.
Project Re:claim – a joint venture between recycling innovators Project Plan B and Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd (SATCoL) – recycles polyester textiles back into raw material on a commercial scale.
Developed by Project Plan B, the system is based on the tech used in plastic bottle recycling. It can turn polyester clothing into rPET pellets that can be used to create more yarn, alongside other things.
In January last year, Project Re:claim machinery was installed at a SATCoL processing centre in Kettering, Northamptonshire, which already processes around 65,000 tonnes of textiles yearly.
Reportedly the first commercial-scale, post-consumer polyester recycling plant of its kind, Project Re:claim’s tech is located at the same site as Fibersort, the UK’s only automated textile sorting facility. This, coupled with the fact that SATCoL is the largest charity-owned textiles collector in the UK, means that Project Re:claim is in a strong position in terms of bringing in enough unwanted polyester to feed its closed loop system.
But feedstock is a key challenge for textile-to-textile recycling innovations, from receiving a consistent reply of the right textiles to issues with contamination.
Changing an Entire Industry Isn’t an Individual Task
One major opportunity lies in getting consumers to change what they do with unwanted textiles. Almost 50% of all used textiles in the UK are disposed of within household waste, according to WRAP. These items then end up either incinerated or in landfill, but they could be used in textile-to-textile recycling schemes instead.
Some consumers may be throwing out their old clothes because they don’t care what happens to them. But some may simply feel stuck on what to do with clothes that aren’t in a good enough condition to donate or resell.
Greater visibility of – and access to – retailer takeback schemes is one way that the fashion industry could shift consumers towards dropping off clothes they don’t want or need rather than discarding them.
However, CFIN’s survey revealed that takeback schemes have the lowest current adoption among retailers compared to other circular activities, and the lowest planned increase in the next few years (30%).
Retailers may be avoiding takeback schemes because of the required effort, cost and time associated with operating them. Legislation may be about to force retailers to offer them anyway.
The EU has just reached a provisional agreement to establish extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes for the textiles industry. Textile producers who sell in an EU country – regardless of where the producer itself is based globally – will have to cover the costs of collecting, sorting and recycling the textiles they make.
One way to tackle this will be through partnering with the likes of Repurpose and Project Re:claim, who offer a one-stop-shop solution, rather than identifying individual partners for different circular activities and assessing the best options for each item of clothing.
But there’s another way these organisations can help support brands in moving to a circular model – supporting the circular design so many are investing in to make it easier and cheaper to recycle the clothes they have to collect.
This is exactly what Project Re:claim has done with school uniform producer David Luke. They have launched a circular school blazar that has been designed to be fully recyclable via Project Re:claim.
Previously, David Luke’s Eco-uniform range used polyester from recycled plastic bottles but wasn’t designed in a way to be easily recyclable again. Working with Project Re:claim, every aspect of the circular blazer has been re-designed so that the entire garment can be recycled in one piece at Project Re:claim’s plant. This includes the buttons and zips.
While the UK may be well positioned to lead the way in circular fashion, it’s clear that changing an entire industry isn’t an individual task. Which is why it’s so encouraging to see major organisations and trade associations helping to lead the way and champion innovation.
Project Re:claim and David Luke’s circular blazer is considered so innovative that one was featured in a display on ‘Tomorrow’s Wardrobe’ at London’s Design Museum. But in the future, it could become the norm.