The road to blockchain adoption in the textile & apparel supply chain is littered with challenges tied to technical, social and entrepreneurial requirements, say researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia.
In a webinar titled ‘The challenges of blockchain adoption for the circular economy’, which took place as part of Manchester Fashion Institute’s 2nd Digital Fashion Innovation e-Symposium in June 2021, Cait Hopper, research assistant, and Hilde Heim, postdoctoral researcher, from QUT, outlined several challenges and opportunities related to the use of blockchain in aim of circularity.
According to the pair, the technical limitations involve the necessity for more advanced digital literacy and the development of common data ontology between supply chain stakeholders to solve issues around information collection; the social limitations are characterised by a need for global coverage of emerging technologies and increased communication between technology providers and industry; while the entrepreneurial limitations revolve the outlining of tangible return-on-investment (ROI) on the path to circular economy.
The duo reiterated that data collection and communication are key issues to the progression of blockchain in the industry, likely since manufacturing can often be shrouded in secrecy and supply chains fragmented around the globe.
Additionally, Hopper explained that ‘hype’ has led to overpromises on the potential of blockchain, but in examining literature it becomes clear that the technology is still in its early days. For example, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may not be ready to adopt the expensive, non-user-friendly technology yet, she added, and that the primary users of blockchain prototypes thus far tend to be big players who want to be considered early adopters.
Nevertheless, Hopper and Heim concluded that the technology does indeed offer a platform that can build transparency and support circularity in the industry.
Thus, the webinar explored emerging circularity technologies for the textile and apparel industries.
The tracking and tracing capabilities of blockchain were noted by the researchers as essential to the creation of a transparent circular model – by assigning unique identifiers to raw materials in the supply chain, industry can capture each process (known as an event) and the person responsible for the process (an agent), which can improve resource event agent accountability.
Examples of technologies that could aid this function include the unique non-toxic pigment technologies developed by FibreTrace that allow the tracking and tracing of cotton fibres.
Elsewhere, BlockTexx, a company that aims to recycle textiles via chemical separation, is pushing sector-agnostic circularity by reselling recycled fibres into other markets via blockchain.
The ongoing developments orbiting blockchain and circularity mean its future use across industry may soon be set in stone – and businesses may want to begin exploring its potential now.
According to the researchers, small steps that SMEs can make to begin their journey to transparency and circularity include the use of RFID tagging technologies, which trace and track garments and could be augmented to include more data and information via blockchain in the future.
