Less than 1% of clothing is recycled into new clothes, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which has generated a gargantuan environmental footprint and a massively untapped market within the industry – and demand for circularity.
This presents a challenge for the textile & apparel industry to innovate and adopt new processes in textile & apparel design, manufacturing and end-of-life to create a circular system that supports the longevity of textiles and garments in the supply chain.
A circular textile & apparel industry would involve the implementation of a ‘regenerative system’ where “garments are circulated for as long as their maximum value is retained”, says ‘apparel knowledge hub’ Motif, which could include garment resale, disassembly and upcycling, textile recycling or more – totally upending the traditional textile & garment value chain.
The current linear take-make-dispose model relies on “large quantities of easily accessible resources and energy”, says Motif, which is now frowned upon by consumers and increasingly the target of new regulations to eliminate unsustainability.
Consequently, many start-ups in the industry are increasingly offering circular solutions to the issue, forging new zero-waste design processes, endeavouring into research and development (R&D) into regenerative textiles, creating waste and pollution elimination techniques, and generating ways to keep products and materials in use in the supply chain.
Industry 4.0 has also been touted as a key driver of sustainability and circularity – the World Economic Forum (WEF), in its 50th annual meeting, posited the Fourth Industrial Revolution as a ‘strategic intelligence’ to forging a sustainable economy.
As such, in a two-part report, WTiN’s Textile 4.0 channel will explore circularity in the textile & apparel industry.
The first report, titled Circularity: The problem with the textile industry, will be published in August 2021. The second report, titled Circularity: Rethinking garment manufacturing, will be published in September 2021.
