Today’s fashion industry is linear. It should be circular. Our vision of a circular economycircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. — in which products are used more, made to be made again, and made from safe and recycled or renewable inputs — is an opportunity for fashion businesses to build economic resilience.
Each year millions of tonnes of clothes are produced, worn, and thrown away. Every second, the equivalent of a rubbish truckload of clothes is burnt or buried in landfill. This approach is not only environmentally unstable, it’s economically fragile. Every discarded garment represents financial value lost to both producer and customer.
We need a better system. We need a circular economy for fashion.
Achieving a circular economy can have huge benefits. Fashion businesses can reduce their exposure to raw material supply disruptions and price volatility in a rapidly shifting geopolitical context. There is also wider economic benefits. For instance, it’s estimated that circular business models such as repairrepairOperation by which a faulty or broken product or component is returned back to a usable state to fulfil its intended use., resale, rental and remaking could be worth USD 700 billion by 2030, making up 23% of the global fashion market.
A circular economy for fashion is becoming a reality.
Progress is being made across three pivotal drivers that are needed to shift the system: product design, circular business models, and infrastructure.
