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Fashion loves a buzz word and one you’ve probably come across a few times is “circular economy”. Despite it only being around since 2014, it’s something that is fast becoming part of marketing campaigns and driving conversations in the design room.
A circular economy is one where waste is repurposed into new products. The idea means that we never need to send anything to landfill, recycling and repurposing things again and again and again. In a circular shape, get it?
It goes something like this:
DESIGN -> USE -> RECYCLE -> DESIGN -> USE -> RECYCLE ETC.
The goal is to design out waste, completely.
What does circularity fashion mean?
We have a few versions of this in fashion. Traditionally, it’s meant using other objects and turning them into fabrics through mechanical recycling. A good example of this is “recycled polyester” which might have been made from recycled disposable plastic bottles.
The future of circular fashion is chemical recycling. This means taking old fabrics and breaking them down into fibres, then respinning those fibres into new fabrics and materials that can make new clothes. This is the sciency stuff of the future but it’s going to completely change the way we produce clothes.
Reskinned are huge advocates for chemical recycling, or “fibre to fibre” recycling as we like to call it. We invest in those who are already able to offer this and are driving research forward to be able to offer this across a multitude of materials.
What is the challenge?
The adversary to F2F recycling is the need for mono materials. This basically means that it’s really difficult to recycle blends and we need things to be pretty much 100% one type of material. It’s a challenge when so many items on the highstreet are sold with blended fabrics due to cost and comfort. Reskinned already work with factories that can offer cotton and some cotton blends recycling.
Why is circular fashion a good thing?
Demand for raw materials is expected to triple by 2050 (WRAP). For every item of clothing made, lots of intensive resources have gone into it. From the water use to for the crop that may become the materials, to the energy used to produce the fabric, to the chemicals and dyes that may pollute water systems in the product development process. SO much energy goes into one item.
And it’s not sustainable. Fashion has a big part to play in the journey to reducing global temperatures and reducing climate change. The quick we can move towards a more circular economy, the less pressure we put on natural resources and the less the risk of waste.
What is the vision?
Reskinned wants more clothes to be made out of materials already available. That’s why we encourage the use of chemical recycling wherever possible. It’s not easy stuff. It involves a lot of time and careful sorting of items by hand in our warehouse. We have to remove anything like buttons or zips from clothes before they’re ready for recycling.
We also opt for reuse over recycling, always. We will only recycle something if it’s completely at the end of its life and can’t be resold, repurposed or upcycled.
How can I support circular fashion?
Keep clothes in existence for as long as possible. That means caring for them and passing them on if you’re not reaching for them anymore. If they’re at the end of their life or you haven’t got a friend who wants to take them off your hands, send them to us. We will find the right home for anything that comes our way.
Whatever you do, don’t put clothes in the bin.