There needs to be increased communication between designers and the recovery industry in facilitating a circular economy for textiles. This includes the need for feedback loops from recovery practitioners to designers with data pertaining to garment failure modes and recovery challenges and successes.
The report: The assertion has been made in a new report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Facilitating a Circular Economy for Textiles. The NIST, founded in 1901, is one of the nation's oldest physical science laboratories and now part of the US Department of Commerce.
The role of brand designers: The report noted, "Brand designers have a significant influence on the circularity of textile products, including upstream innovations and fiber sourcing, manufacturing quality, as well as product durability and recyclability. However, in general, current design practices fail to consider the full lifecycle of products."
The report identified several design challenges and opportunities:
Design Challenges
- Contradiction between design for durability and design for recycling (DfR);
- Current design does not consider the full lifecycle of product;
- How to include EoL (end of life) procedures into design?
Design Opportunities
- Need to commit to purity (not mix fibre types);
- Increase demand for sustainable fibre types (e.g., organic, recycled);
- Need to design with the full lifecycle in mind;
- Design for performance/fashion AND recyclability;
- Increased communication and feedback loops;
- Development of design guidelines to inform DfR.
The report makes a number of points for facilitating a circular economy for textiles:
- Product design must integrate quality, durability, recyclability, as well as customer satisfaction.
- Design for recycling entails that products are ideally 100 % pure (not blended), contain only polymers, chemicals, additives, dyes, and finishes that do not contaminate the recycling system, and are easy to disassemble (e.g., removal of buttons, zippers).
- Improved data and decision tools would be useful to aid designers in prioritising design characteristics.
Alternative business models: Brands, the report points out, can also facilitate circularity by advancing new business models such as repair, resell, renting, or even the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and on-demand manufacturing to optimize production and avoid access. It cites examples:
- Eileen Fisher takes clothes back from customers (through mail or drop-off at warehouse) and sorts and cleans garments for direct resale, repair, or transformation into alternative textile products.
- Patagonia provides a resale platform known as 'Worn Wear' which allows customers to sell used gear.
- The Renewal Workshop works on behalf of brands to clean, sort, and repair damaged or returned items for resale either on brand-specific online platforms or shared marketplaces.
The workshop: The report is based on a three-day workshop held at NIST in September 2021 that brought together manufacturers, industry associations, recyclers, waste managers, researchers, policymakers and several major fashion brands that share the goal of increasing circularity in the textiles industry.
