Fashion and Circular Economy

The Great Reset

BY ABHISHEK PRADEEP

5 MARCH 2021

When you toss out your old jeans, ever wondered what happens to them?

An average consumer threw away 80 pounds (36kgs) of clothing in 2019. That amounts to 26 billion pounds of textiles and clothes ending up in landfills — but it doesn’t have to.

Nine out of ten consumers have never heard of the concept ‘circular economy’. Are you the 1%?

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The Industrial Revolution laid the foundation for how the economy of today operates. However, this long-propelled economy since 18th century pose great existential crisis of mankind now. Many of our environmental calamities – rapid climate change, extreme weather conditions, loss of flora and fauna, contaminated ocean, polluted land and air- stem from the collision of two systems: Earth’s natural system and Man’s Linear economic system.

“We take resources from the ground to make products, which we use, and, when we no longer want them, throw them away. Take-make-waste. This a linear economy.”

As a result, we Gen Y and Z are at the tipping point of tolerance and change is inevitable. Many scientists and environment activists; Greta Thunberg and Disha Ravi have alerted us that our current economic model has been pushing the natural order and capacity of Earth’s systems to their limits, and that unless we change course, we will be thrown into non-reversible crisis. This requires total systems transformation, from fashion to food, cities and production, and finally consumption.

In the graph above; the growth in clothing sales rapid than GDP indicating a slowdown in inflation (garment pricing). The chase for cheaper price and accelerated fashion cycles to increase the number of collections in a year, that are at the heart of the fast fashion model, have over utilized resources, over production and over consumption.

We are disrupting the system.

Impact of Linear Economy and Fast Fashion

Fast fashion is a modern-day phenomenon. It follows a “take-make-dispose” pattern, and enables companies to mass-market, manufacturers to mass-produce, and shoppers to buy the latest trends straight from runway shows for cheaper price. Sounds like a win-win until we consider true cost.

Textile production is the most polluting industries, producing 1.2 billion tons of CO2 per year. To keep up with this level of consumerism, natural resources are put on demanding pressure, causing high levels of pollution; including the use of toxic chemicals and dyes, and synthetics fibers seeping into water supplies and in our ocean. Over 60% of textiles used in the clothing industry are made in China and India, where coal-fueled power plants increase the carbon footprint of each garment.

(Today’s linear clothing system has damaging effects on society and environment)

The linear “take-make-dispose” linear economy has to change. We must transform all the elements of the take-make-waste system: how we manage resources, how we make and use products, and what we do with the materials afterwards. Only then can we create a thriving economy that can benefit everyone within the limits of our planet.

• Every second 1 truckload of clothing goes into landfill or it is burned.

Fashion and Circular economy

“Nine out of ten consumers have never heard of the concept ‘circular economy’. 87% of UK consumers do not know the term for the economic system, which is aimed at eliminating waste, despite 88% claiming to look for sustainability credentials when shopping for beauty and personal care products”

As we began 2021 against the backlash by Covid-19, businesses face an amalgamation of challenges – from rising geo-economic-political tensions to the urgency of the climate crisis. The moment of the great reset is now. Mankind evolving to a circular economic model is critical for his/her existence. The circular economy presents a unique market opportunity upwards of $4.5 trillion by 2030. In a circular economy, waste is designed out instead of tossing out, and products are instead looped back into the production system at end of use.

The predominant vision of Circular Fashion is that it aligns with the principles of a circular economy. A circular fashion industry is defined as a renewing system in which clothing are circulated among the different layers of supply chain for as long as their maximum value is retained optimally, and then returned safely to the environment when they are no longer of use benefiting business, society, and the environment and achieving unparalleled levels of ethics. In such a system, clothes, textiles, and fibers are kept at their highest value during use and re-enter the economy after use, never ending up as waste.

In a circular model, products are designed and developed with the next use in mind. Less than 1% of clothing is recycled into new clothing. The best thing we can do is buy the things that gives value, sustainable, ethical and reusable. Imagine a transparent supply chain wherein the clothing you buy has minimal carbon footprint, better treatment of garment workers, seller’s effort to improve working conditions, materials used such that it has minimal to zero impact on environment.

"In the Circular fashion concept, garments last in the ecosystem for a longer period with no significant waste. The garments are made with minimal and environmental-friendly resources and reused or recycled into a new product."

Conclusion

With the global population set to reach 9 billion people by 2030, nature will take a toll to meet never-ending human demands like never before. The goal of circular fashion is to ensure that the garments we wear are made from safe, renewable materials, ethical and old clothes are turned into new products rather than ending in landfill. We collectively can evolve to a future where Man – Nature lives in harmony where ecosystems are protected and where people are provided with dignified work. This is the philosophy of circular fashion, and the why it is disapprovingly important.

Clothes are an eternal expression of our personalities!

Works Cited

• Ellen MacArthur Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved from What is the circular economy?: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/what-is-the-circular-economy

• Ellen MacArthur Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved from Fashion and the circular economy: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/explore/fashion-and-the-circular-economy

• MOTIF. (2021, February 12). Retrieved from Moving Towards a Circular Fashion Economy: https://motif.org/news/circular-fashion-economy/