Why our viral post on circularity resonated
This week we posted a simple statement over on Instagram, “At Fashion Roundtable we do not think that circularity is the solution.” Granted the statement was a little risky, given that a lot of funding and industry buy-in and attention is currently laser-focused on the concept of circularity. The idea of circularity is not something new to us at Fashion Roundtable. This is a concept that we have researched extensively, lived in and amongst, on our mission for a sustainable and regenerative future for the fashion industry. Where we have got to is something that transcends this.
What followed was a viral thread of comments leaning into the idea that circularity as it stands is not the sole solution, which we unpick below and showing that a full-system overview is needed.
Please comment, share and discuss, as we gather different view points, we collectively evolve and grow.
Circularity can’t just mean business as usual
The circular framework that we originally spoke to did not take into account the circle getting larger, nor did it take into account the fact that we are all still buying too much, and that brands are focused on recycling as a solution when a large quantity of fibres are still made from petrochemicals. This cannot just be used as a scapegoat for a ‘business as usual mindset’ and involves a more comprehensive view of the landscape and future of the industry.
“Well said, I 100% agree with you. Most of the 'circular' talk is code for 'business as usual'. We simply just need to buy less and brands need to produce less #speakvolumes There's so little true recycling of clothes (where they're reprocessed back into fabric),” Wendy Ward commented on our post.
A post shared by @thatwendyward
Wendy appeared in The Guardian last week for her Guerrilla EPR #takeitback campaign, where she encouraged consumers to return 'waste' textiles to the CEOs of the brands that created them.
Here EPR strategies are vital, where brands are held to far greater accountability. However, there are some issues with this that need unpicking.
Possible challenges raised by EPR:
● A recycling industry develops that isn’t aligned to a UK path to Net Zero (energy use, water use, imbedded carbon in new buildings, waste etc).
● Exports to global south become a cheap work around, worsening the crisis of dumped textiles already created.
● Microfibre and plastics pollution continue or are exacerbated.
● Overproduction isn’t addressed as a key driver for waste, End of life provisions disincentive slowing up over-production.
● Small Resale, Repair or Creative Upcycling businesses struggle to compete with larger brands.
● End of life or use of recycled fibres used as Greenwashing by brands to mask poor production practices (environmental and social).
A new system, not just recycling
For textiles to be recycled, challenges around technicalities must be addressed. One of which is the degradation and then the subsequent blending of fibres. Fibre lengths are naturally reduced during wear, wash, friction etc. however mechanical recycling also intensifies this. Shorter length fibres have lower strength and longevity, which needs to be addressed in terms of closed-loop recycling. Blending of fibres is problematic as sorting is currently impossible as this is still done by hand. Therefore mechanical recycling is problematic as synthetic fibres have differing attributes, while some can get stuck in the shredder, others are too strong to shred.
Second hand clothes exports from global north donations / ‘recyclers’ to the global south and the extremely serious environmental and cultural problems they are causing for the recipient nations. An EPR strategy that would allow exporters only to send to countries who have a similar level of textile processing facility is very weak, problematic and will be rendered ineffectual if those countries in turn are not also beholden to such measures as they will simply be passing the unwanted volumes onto other countries in the region.
“The holy grail attitude for fibre-fibre recycling is the last thing we should be doing but gets a disproportionate amount of attention. I'm here for circularity that involves communities, mending, swapping, sharing - circularity as a framework for a new system, not just recycling,” Julia Roebuck from Upcycle Fashion commented.
Governments should incentivise for EPR not penalise:
● Repair strategies
● Sewing back into schools - KS2 onward
● Education on value and heritage, linked in with innovation
● Education on designing products for circularity and responsible fibres/end of life
● Analytical / commercial technique required for identification of differing fibres to reduce hand sorting.
● Brands making costs visible i.e. showing the hidden costs through rating systems / labelling to boost consumer awareness.
● Retailers educate staff and consumers on how to take care of their products through mandated minimum requirements (like a first aid requirement in the workplace) and through online platforms - repair and care, wash less often and colder etc.
● The government needs to incentivise renewal and augmentation of spinning knowledge in the UK so that we transform fibres into stable, high quality recycled yarn that is blended with virgin wool fibre for example or sustainable silk or hemp to augment durability and tensile strength.
Heritage skills preservation are vital
The preservation of heritage skills and methods for textile and clothing design and making. Practical in real life (not digital) spaces that create training opportunities and permanent spaces for textile craft preservation, development and trade, rooted in localised resources, regenerative agriculture and women’s empowerment initiatives (in the Global North and the Global South).
● Investment in spinning facilities that are placed close to fibre production zones
● Garment worker welfare and prevention of exploitation by the largest fast fashion retailers who are largely responsible.
● Given the lack of joined-up skills across the country and a further lack of equal opportunities particularly for working-class communities, we suggest further research is required to develop a skills roadmap for future skills development and jobs within the fashion and textiles sector. With the increase of AI and its proposed cross-cutting effect on jobs as they stand, this research must look to future-proof the jobs market.
● Further, with ongoing trade barriers, the government now has an opportunity to look at far keener policy attention intent on making it easier for British brands and manufacturers to work in the UK by creating the right conditions. This needs urgent government action and investment particularly focused on ‘UK Made Initiatives’ in collaboration with all four nations of the UK. This is where a roadmap of skills focused on building local clusters and plugging necessary skill gaps is vital.
An issue of fibre
“It’s not that circularity is wrong, it’s that people who don’t think holistically about the land are disconnected from what true circularity is. The concept of circularity used by the fashion industry, conveniently misses the most significant step out the circle. Everything used in fashion comes from the land in one way or another - whether it’s man made fibres using oil or natural fibres grown on a farm. If you genuinely are looking for a circular system, those fibres have to give back to the landscape they were removed from. The damage done and carbon released during fossil fuel extraction can never be returned - it’s an impossibility for synthetics to ever be circular. Natural fibres however, if they are produced in an organic and regenerative system free from toxic inputs all along the supply chain can actually be truly circular - soil to soil,” commented Katie Cotmarsh from Katie Cotmarsh Knitwear on the post.
This is where The Great British Wool Revival as a concept shows major potential. This initiative supports farmers, designers and makers to increase the uptake of British wool, but aren’t sure how to make that happen. From farm to fabric, the mission is to see strong, long-term relationships developed to create a healthy wool fibre ecosystem within the shores of the British Isles. This is a concept which has mapped the entirety of the British wool supply chain and is replicable for other countries and other fibres.
We would like to see:
● Investment in fibre production at a local level (localising the supply chain - less of a carbon footprint) - scouring, spinning etc.
● To protect UK endangered textiles knowledge and skills and maintain an industry which could be a key-player in slowing fashion and reducing waste, it is important that fashion products are not able to damage heritage artisans through appropriation practices. At present IP law, and geographical indications are not fit for purpose to protect heritage textile communities and their cultural products. IP law is designed for brands and individuals not communities, and GI is acceptable for food and agriculture or but not for crafts and designs that have the right to evolve and exist outside of a set method, or aesthetic. Custodians of textile knowledge need a fit-for-purpose protection to avoid fashion co-opting the aesthetic without investing in the artisans and communities.
● Working with farmers at the start of fibre production to ensure that quality is met through breeding programmes and incentives - particularly around circular and biodegradable fibres.
● Looking at food agricultural processes to influence localism and fibre production.
● Linen/Flax is being favoured as a solution as like wool, the British climate suits this as opposed to cotton.
● Natural dyes - for instance the work Phoebe English has done with Fibershed and the Dyers Circle to experiment and expand tinctorial plant growing and extracting.
● Skills reboot and campaign, e.g. sewing classes in KS2 and 3 and support for craft initiatives, such as the workshops currently been done at Dumfries Houses.
● Dye plant growing at farm level at commercial scale.
● Localised community collaboration incentivisation to support circular initiatives.
● Infrastructure for plant and food waste processing into dyestuffs.
● Infrastructure for food and waste textile dyeing.
Creative Wellbeing Economy framework relaunch
The Creative Wellbeing Economy (CWE) is a new systems approach that centres creativity and community as essential drivers of human and planetary wellbeing. Unlike traditional economic models that focus solely on growth and production, CWE prioritises access to creative opportunities as pathways to mental, physical, and social health, and the overall health of our planet. By fostering this interwoven relationship between people, community and the environment, the CWE creates an economy of opportunity that extends from cradle to cradle, ensuring that creativity and its benefits are accessible to all at every stage of life. It reimagines the economy by integrating nine core pillars into a dynamic, regenerative system where people thrive rather than merely survive:
1. A STEAM education for all
2. Opportunities for meaningful employment
3. Preservation and revaluing of cultural and heritage skills
4. Health and wellbeing of individuals and communities
5. Increased social mobility
6. Empowered local communities
7. Placemaking with hyper locality in mind
8. Sustainable supply chains across industries
9. Food and fibre sovereignty
In implementing the CWE, we are seeking to create a long-term systems change solution that recentres meaningful and rewarding work and personal pursuits as vital links in an economy that views thriving citizens as central to its success and longevity. It places creativity, craft, community, intersectionality and inclusivity at the forefront of a thriving society in which all citizens have equal access to opportunities by which they may realise their full potential. The Creative Wellbeing Economy represents a paradigm shift from linear to interdisciplinary, from throwaway to regenerative, and from conflict to community.
To read more on our EPR strategy which we released in 2022 with help from our Sustainability and Social Justice Committee. Traffic light concept by Jodi Muter-Hamilton click below.