The development of a circular economy – where the resources used to create something, such as a garment, are perpetually recycled to create new items with as little waste produced as possible – has become a key goal for the global textile industry over recent years.
Many initiatives have emerged in Europe in particular, and in March 2022, the European Commission launched the EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles1, which implements the commitments of the European Green Deal2, with its goal of climate neutrality for the EU by 2050, and the circular economy action plan (CEAP)3, one of its key policy initiatives.
The CEAP aims to “make sustainable products the norm in the EU”, and the Commission notes that 5.8 million tonnes of textiles are discarded every year in the EU – which works out at 11.3 kg per person – and that globally, at present, just 1% of clothing material is recycled into new garments.4
Under its strategy for textiles, the Commission has set several ambitious aims and wants to ensure that by 2030:
“all textile products placed on the EU market are durable, repairable and recyclable, to a great extent made of recycled fibres, free of hazardous substances, produced in respect of social rights and the environment.”
The Commission says it will:
“set design requirements for textiles to make them last longer, easier to repair and recycle” and “stop overproduction and overconsumption, and discourage the destruction of unsold or returned textiles.”
In January 2023, the Commission launched a new campaign titled ‘ReSet The Trend’, which aims to encourage consumers across Europe to move away from fast fashion. There is a clear emphasis in the strategy on making clothing more durable and encouraging consumers to extend the life of their garments. This is perhaps not surprising given the growing body of research indicating how effective such changes can be in tackling the environmental impact of clothing. Recent studies have found that while using more sustainable materials and manufacturing processes plays an important role, keeping apparel alive for longer has the biggest effect on a garment’s footprint.
According to UK organisation, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), if clothes stayed in active use for nine months longer, extending their average life to around three years, this would reduce their carbon, water and waste footprints by 20-30%. And by extending the average life of clothes by just three months of active use would lead to a 5-10% reduction.5
A separate white paper study reviewing research on how the textile and clothing industry can use resources in a smarter way from a consumer perspective concludes that “extending the active life of our clothes should be the goal with the highest priority.”6 The study points to research completed in Sweden, which found that using garments twice as many times in their original purchase form cuts the climate impact by almost 50%. This reduction is mainly due to fewer new garments needing to be produced.
It, therefore, makes sense for the Commission to begin implementing its strategy with the new consumer campaign. Amid the complexity of the challenges we face in tackling climate change, keeping clothes alive for longer and buying fewer new items is a relatively easy way for consumers to feel better about themselves and their carbon footprint – but it can also be mightily effective.
And it is encouraging that over recent years there has been a surge in the demand for second-hand clothes, with a report published last November stating that Europe’s second-hand apparel market was expected to be worth US$18.1 billion in 2022, with demand forecast to grow at a CAGR of 8.4% to US$40.7 billion by 2032.7
Yet, while sales of second-hand clothing are on the rise – so is the demand for fast fashion. A report published in January 2023, for instance, found that the global fast fashion market is expected to expand by a CAGR of 13.8%, from US$91.2 billion in 2021 to US$173.9 billion in 2026, and then grow at a CAGR of 6.70% from 2026 to US$240.5 billion in 2031.8
The study found that in 2022, Western Europe was the largest region in the global fast fashion market, accounting for 29.3% of the total. These figures, therefore, highlight the importance of shifting the production, as well as the consumption, of textiles to a circular model, as changes in consumer habits will not solve the problem on its own.
A report from McKinsey published in July 2022 estimated that 70% of textile waste in Europe could be fibre-to-fibre recycled – but only once effective solutions for the most widely used fibres are available.9
The report notes that “some technologies, like mechanical recycling of pure cotton, are already established. Other technologies, like chemical recycling of polyester, have been subject to intense R&D and are on the brink of commercialization.”
There has been intense activity across the textile industry around recycling and other ways of creating a circular model, and this is continuing to lead to different ways of attempting to tackle the problem.
So far this year, these have ranged from a partnership between Carbios and Novozymes, which is planning to offer enzymatic recycling at an industrial scale10, to Belgian start-up Noosa, which claims that its Noocycle technology can transform its discarded products into virgin fibres using chemical textile recycling processes to separate fibres from other components11.
Programmes are also in place across Europe designed to support such initiatives. As well as the EU’s over-arching strategy, there are several schemes in different countries, such as Denmark’s Partnership for Circular Economy for Plastics and Textiles, which consists of 92 partners and aims to deliver a circular economy for plastics and textiles in Denmark by 2050.12
The rapid scaling up of circular solutions in the textile industry remains vital in tackling the immense challenge of transforming the production and consumption of clothes in Europe into are more sustainable – let alone carbon-neutral – operation, so we can expect to see activity in this space continue to intensify over the next few years.
1 Textiles strategy (europa.eu)
2 A European Green Deal (europa.eu)
3 Circular economy action plan (europa.eu)
5 WRAP - The Climate Crisis: Act Now
6 Sandin, G., Roos, S., Spak, B., Zamani, B. and Peters, G., 2019, Environmental assessment of Swedish clothing consumption: Six garments – sustainable futures (http://mistrafuturefashion.com/ wp-content/uploads/2019/08/G.Sandin-Environmental-assessment-of-Swedish-clothing-consumption. MistraFutureFashionReport-2019.05.pdf; accessed 10 March 2020).
7 Europe Second-hand Apparel Market Size & Forecast – 2032 (futuremarketinsights.com)
8 Global Fast Fashion Market Report And Strategies To 2032 (thebusinessresearchcompany.com)
9 Circular fashion in Europe: Turning waste into value | McKinsey
11 Noosa - The Circular Fiber (noosafiber.com)
Jonathan's work on the sports industry has been published by The Times, The Observer, The Independent and The Sun, as well as Sport Business, Off The Pitch, FC Business and Zero Carbon Academy.
He has also contributed to BBC Radio 5 Live, Middle East Eye, The Scotsman, Rediff.com., World Soccer, When Saturday Comes, Wisden Cricket Monthly and School Sport.
Away from sports, he has held full-time and freelance roles at a number of global B2B publishers. He was the Founding Editor of Twist - a magazine covering the latest developments across the fashion industry supply chain. The title is published by World Textile Information Network (WTiN). Following the success of the launch of Twist, Jonathan was promoted to Head of Content at WTiN. In this newly-created role, he was responsible for developing WTiN's digital content and social media presence as the company evolved from being a magazine publisher to a market-leading media company across all platforms.
