Name: Creating a circular economy for fashion | Rethink Sustainability
Uploaded: 2020-03-18T09:12:34.000Z
Duration: 5 min 29 s
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It's an industry where less than 1% of recycled textiles are converted into new wearable materials.

But very gradually, that may be changing.

I'm travelling to the Isle of Wight off the UK Southern Coast to find out more.

We're on our way to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which is a nonprofit that focuses on the circular economy.

The foundation promotes a vision for a fashion economy in which nothing ends up as waste.

I'm meeting Laura Bowman, a project manager.

Welcome to the other MacArthur Foundation.

Every second, the equivalent of one rubbish truck load off clothing is landfill or incinerated globally in a circular economy.

Instead of operating in this one, my sister, we from the very outset look at creating something that designs out the waste from the beginning.

So in terms of business opportunity, the huge spectrum food companies to actually move towards the circular economy.

One company working towards a circular model is a nearby freshwater.

Welcome to Team I'm on Team Ill is an online platform built by the clothing company.

It allows brands to print and create their own sustainable garments.

All of its products are made from organic cotton and central to its business model is combating the inefficiency built into the fashion industry.

One of the big problems with fashion as well as the material wasted, is actually the overproduction to start with, we only actually make what you will need when they need it, which means making products in the seconds after their orders.

In 2018 T Mill shipped one million shirts.

The company estimates that using sustainable materials ads about 25% of cost but says it offsets that by maximizing efficiencies in other places, it costs more money.

T mail minimizes waste and streamlines production, using its own creative engineering, the whole factories powered by renewable energy.

Everything that we make is designed from the start to come back to us when it's worn out.

So every team L T shirt has this barcode on the care label, which when you're done with your T shirt, you can scan it and it'll generate a postage label and allows you to send the shirt back for free and then team will give customers a discount on their next order in order to incentivize people to recycle instead of throw their clothes in the trash.

There are, of course, a variety of approaches being used to move closer to a circular economy In central London.

I'm meeting with Cindy Roads of Warn Again Technologies, which focuses on recycling textiles at the molecular level.

So we've developed a process that could take polyester cotton.

Dissolve it in a vat separate both of polyester and cotton.

Blended fabrics tend to be harder to recycle.

This year is a polyester pellet, which is the building block that then gets melted down, extruded into fiber yarn and textiles.

Then what we're able to do with the leftover cotton is dissolved.

That separate out all the dyes, which then gets separated and spun back into a fiber morn, again plans to license its technology to other businesses, crucially, at an affordable price.

It was really important that the process itself is low cost, that we're not creating a premium product that the industry has to pay more for, and that consumers ultimately have to pay more for in nearby Islington, Jonathan Mitchell, founder of Brothers We stand is tackling the challenge from a different angle.

Brother stan dot com MySpace online retailer where you can shop menswear that's made more sustainably, often made from recycled materials but crucially, also made to last.

The company makes a small amount of clothing itself in vets, all of its suppliers.

We have a six point standard, and every product on our site must meet that standard.

And it includes points like designed to please made to last and also stand out.

Social environment Impact Brothers we Stand says production costs using sustainable materials around one and 1/2 times higher for basic T shirts and customers do pay a premium.

But despite that, sales have grown by more than 50% each of the last two years, albeit from a small base.

More more people wanting to consume clothes on also other things more sustainably, and I want to provide a solution to these people.

A recent study by McKinsey found that 78% of sourcing manager said that by 2025 sustainability would be a significant factor for consumers purchasing mass market apparel.

 It will not be quick or easy, but as we saw in the Isle of Wight, companies are already beginning to build circular models on a large scale, a sign of things to come. 

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Creating a circular economy for fashion | Rethink Sustainability

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