The fashion industry has a major waste problem. Some experts say that textile waste is a bigger issue than plastic waste, and it has a similar problem. Moreover, clothing recycling has become a challenge for established brands and is fueling startups.
This challenge has created a new industry for recycling-focused startups, attracting interest from companies like Levi’s, Adidas, and Zara. Recycling efforts so far have not made much of a dent, because most garments are made with a blend of textiles hard to recycle. So far, refashioning old clothing into new clothing has barely made a dent in the industry.
Roughly 97 percent of clothing eventually ends up in a landfill, according to McKinsey. Around 60 percent of clothing manufactured hits a landfill within 12 months of its manufacturing date. The trend in clothing production has accelerated enormously in the last two decades because of the rise of fast fashion, multinational production, and the introduction of cheaper plastic fibers.
The apparel industry desires to be taken seriously on recycling, but even the simplest solutions haven’t worked. Sustainability experts, opine that as much as 80 percent of Goodwill clothing ends up going to Africa because the U.S. secondhand market can’t absorb the inventory.
Currently, less than 1 percent of textiles produced for clothing are recycled into new clothing, which comes at a cost of $100 billion a year in revenue opportunity, according to McKinsey Sustainability.
With the majority of textiles in the fashion industry blended, it is harder to recycle one fiber without harming another. A typical sweater can contain multiple different types of fibers including a blend of cotton, cashmere, acrylic, nylon, and spandex. None of the fibers can be recycled in the same pipeline, as has been economically done in the metals industry.
The complexity of the fashion recycling problem is behind new business models that have emerged at companies including Evrnu, Renewcell, Spinnova, SuperCircle, and some big new commercial operations. Spinnova partnered with the world’s largest pulp and paper company this year, Suzano, to turn wood and waste into recycled textile fiber.
Impact unfortunately costs money, and it’s figuring out how to make that make important business sense. Levi Strauss is making progress in its attempt to fashion a circular economy with its iconic 501 blue jeans now made from 40 percent fiber from Renewcell, and 60 percent organic cotton. And it’s not just what you see on the outside of the jeans, Dillinger said. The red tab, back patch, stitching, and interior labeling have all been rendered in cotton, which people don’t think about when recycling a pair of jeans.
The promotional t-shirts that runners get for their 5K are typically made of 50 percent cotton and 50 percent polyester, or a fleece sweater made for children that include both cotton and polyester to comply with fire safety concerns, both of which are pervasive products and add to the challenge of recycling mixed materials.
Adidas says it is on track to using only recycled polyester by the end of 2023 — currently at 96 percent which is a year ahead of its original goal. The share of recycled polyester worldwide, meanwhile, is currently at 15 percent, according to an Adidas spokeswoman, who said changes up and down the supply chain are critical to these goals being met.
Regulatory trends are a factor that Stacy Flynn, CEO of Evrnu — which ranked No. 37 on the 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50 list — is watching closely. Flynn developed a textile recycling platform, NuCycl, that can transform discarded clothing into the new fiber, and it says it equals or outperform 90 percent of fibers, including cotton, nylon, and polyester, on cost and quality using existing textile supply chain equipment.
Zara has a stated goal of using only 100 percent organic cotton, recycled, or sustainable material fabrics in all of its clothing, and 100 percent recycled polyester and organic linen by 2025. But it isn’t yet clear how feasible that timeline is for any of the major brands.
To solve the system problem consumption needs to decrease, the disassemblylongevity of apparel needs to increase (reuse, repair), and product design needs to embrace sustainability (recyclable/designed for dis-assembly). All of these run counter to the current fast fashion business model unless we can scale solutions.
Waste legislation may help improve textile economics. In the United States, policy advocates have taken smaller strides towards recycled fashion, with some state bills introduced. In California, the SB 707 bill was introduced in February to create a statewide recycling program for textiles.
In New York State, The Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, also known as the Fashion Act, would hold companies accountable for their recycling practices. It is currently backed by fashion brands like Eileen Fisher, Stella McCartney, Everlane, and Patagonia, as well as other advocacy organizations pushing to pass the bill.
Textile recycling companies like Renewcell, Evrnu, Spinnova, and SuperCircle view co-branding with major consumer companies as a key element to ensuring consumers understand the value of what they’re buying and bolstering brand loyalty.
You can’t look at recycling and think you’re going to make a million bucks recycling cotton t-shirts because you’re not. You have to find another way to make it make economic sense, and these business models are going to be interesting in the next few years.
Will recycling ideas at Levi’s, Adidas, Zara, stop trillions in fast fashion from going to waste
