Many businesses have invested in recycling practices that seem like a natural starting point for more involved circular economy activities. Characteristics of a circular economy suggest that more fundamental shift required to decouple growth from finite resources and move to a circular development path.

As per the circular economy, there is a fundamental shift in the way resources, energy and information flow through our economy. A key characteristic of this framework is that products and components remain at their highest levels of integrity and performance. 

The perception is that a circular economy is just ‘recycling on steroids’ - recycling more stuff, and doing it a bit better. This confusion is understandable. Since the 1970s, recycling has become synonymous with ‘doing good.’ What’s more, many businesses have invested in recycling practices that seem like a natural starting point for more involved circular economy activities. However, the characteristics of a circular economy - and existing research - suggest that returning a product to the material level would be ‘the loop of last resort,’ with a more fundamental shift required to decouple growth from finite resources and move to a circular development path.

The real opportunity

Economic analysis conducted by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and McKinsey & has demonstrated how, in a circular economy, greater value can be obtained by operating in the ‘inner loops’ of a technical cycle. Activities such as sharing, service, maintenance, refurbishment and remanufacturing preserve the integrity of a product. We often hear about how a company has recovered a product and then processed the materials so they can be used as a resource. But think about it - by returning a product to its constituent materials you lose all the energy, labour and expense that went into creating it in the first place. In some cases, the recycling process may even be more costly than extracting virgin resources. This can severely undermine recycling efforts - in the current context of depressed commodity prices.

Consider that recycling is a generic term, with a range of possible nuances. More often than not, emphasis is placed on post-consumer recycling. This shifts responsibility to the public, but also misses the point. A significant amount of waste is generated at the extraction and production phase when making new products - another reason to suggest that the real opportunity might lie elsewhere.

Real opportunities for higher levels of valorisation exist in the ‘inner loops’ of a product cycle and it is here that businesses, users and governments can really start to see the benefits of a circular economy. In fact, studies have suggested that seizing these types of value creation opportunities wouldn’t just achieve a one-off dent in resource demand, but could actually change the run rate of required material intake. The pursuit of this circular economy development path could see European GDP increase as much as 11 per cent by 2030 and 27 per cent by 2050, compared with 4 per cent and 15 per cent in the current, linear development scenario.

Recycling, a necessity

At some point products and components will break down, and it won’t be possible or sensible to keep them in service any longer. At this point, a recycling option will be necessary. Even then, we need to rethink the process. Widespread legislation on recycling rates has encouraged businesses to look to end-of-pipe solutions, and whilst these are often commendable, they naturally revolve around making do with the scraps at hand. Frequently this means dealing with stuff designed in a linear, take-make-dispose mindset. Toxic materials, integrated design and irreversible adhesives are all design choices that can get in the way of positive and scalable recycling activities.

The ‘New Plastics Economy’ report, released at the World Economic Forum, revealed the scale of material leakage from today’s plastics system. Even when we can recover dispersed materials, current recycling techniques rarely preserve all the material. For example, around 80 per cent of recycled PET bottles are turned into polyester fibers for carpet, clothing and other non-packaging applications. With paper recycling, fibers diminish after six or seven cycles, and they can no longer be used for paper production. Important progress is being made, but this still represents significant material losses over time. To truly optimise resource flows, future pathways should be considered at the design phase. In the Towards the Circular Economy report series, this is summarised by ‘the power of pure inputs.’

The circular economy gives us a chance to create a new story for the global economy. Recycling has a place within that story, but rather than simply eking out our materials a bit further, a systemic shift based on circular economic principles offers greater business opportunity, and the potential to decouple growth from finite resource inputs.

"Every year, 80 billion garments are made globally generating 1.3 billion tons of fabric waste, says Mausmi Ambastha, Founder and COO, Threadsol. In her recent blog ‘You Waste 1.3 Billion Tonnes Of Fabric. What Are You Doing About It?’ Ambastha urges apparel manufacturers to look into the harmful impact on environment of the fabric wasted during manufacturing process and invest in greener technologies to make manufacturing environmentally sustainable. Indeed, environment issues are high on the agenda everywhere with air pollution, noise pollution, wastes from plastic, food and materials from our everyday lives being monitored."

Every year, 80 billion garments are made globally generating 1.3 billion tons of fabric waste, says Mausmi Ambastha, Founder and COO, Threadsol. In her recent blog ‘You Waste 1.3 Billion Tonnes Of Fabric. What Are You Doing About It?’ Ambastha urges apparel manufacturers to look into the harmful impact on environment of the fabric wasted during manufacturing process and invest in greener technologies to make manufacturing environmentally sustainable. Indeed, environment issues are high on the agenda everywhere with air pollution, noise pollution, wastes from plastic, food and materials from our everyday lives being monitored. But the fact is nearly 75 per cent of global fabric waste is discarded untreated and this waste either end up in landfills or is burnt thereby polluting water and land alike, she argues.

More fiber, more waste, more damage

Global supply of fibers has almost double in the last decade from 52.6 million tons to 100 million tons. More production means more waste, leading to a negative impact on the environment. Ambastha writes, textile wastes comprise 1.0 – 5.1 per cent of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) compositions in the world regions. Although textile and apparel manufacturing has largely shifted to developing countries, textile waste remains a big concern both in developed and developing countries. In the US this waste is 4.95 per cent , China 1.3 and in a small country like Bhutan it is as high as 4.7 per cent. The environmental issues during the operational phase of textile manufacturing include the following:

Hazardous materials

Chemicals like Benzene, Cyanide, and Sulphate are discharged as effluents in the manufacturing of textiles which pose a serious health hazard.

Waste water

She points out that the textile industry utilises various chemicals and large amount of water during the production process. “The water is mainly used for application of chemicals onto fibers and rinsing of the final products. The waste water produced during this process contains a large amount of dyes and chemicals containing traces of metals such as Cr, Cu and Zn which are capable of harming the environment and human health. The textile waste water can cause hemorrhage, ulceration of skin, nausea, skin irritation and dermatitis. The chemicals present in the water block the sunlight and increase the biological oxygen demand thereby inhibiting photosynthesis and re-oxygenation.”

Emissions to air

Some textile manufacturing operations result in significant air pollution. Finishing processes (e.g. coating and dyeing operations) are some of these. Other significant sources of air emissions include drying, printing, fabric preparation, and wastewater treatment residues. “Solvents may be emitted from coating / treatment finishing processes, drying ovens, and high-temperature drying and curing. Other potential emissions include formaldehyde, acids (especially acetic acid), and other volatile compounds, such as carriers and solvents, emitted during dyeing operations and from wastewater treatment operations. Solvent vapors may contain toxic compounds such as acetaldehyde, chlorofluorocarbons, dichlorobenzene, ethyl acetate, methylnaphthalene, chlorotoluene, among others.”

Energy consumption

Textile manufacturing also results using up of a lot of energy resources. Heat consumption is particularly significant in drying and curing operations and in activities involving wet treatments.

Solid and liquid wastes Then there are solid and liquid wastes that are left out these include trials, selvedge, trimmings, cuttings of fabrics, and yarns; spent dyes, pigments, and printing pastes; and sludge from process wastewater treatment containing mainly fibers and grease.

Steps to be taken

Ambastha says, the Americans generate nearly 13 million tons of textile waste every year, while British generate 1.12 million tons. And even though the British seem to generate less waste, one in five British are known to throw away a garment after one wear. Statistically this means $127 million of clothing in landfills every year. Also, 15 per cent of fabric for clothing ends up on the cutting floor. Then in China, millions of unused fabrics from mills are wasted every year just because the colour dyed on them was wrong. What’s more a single mill in China uses up 200 tons of water for each ton of fabric it dyes. And many rivers water run the colour of the season as effluent plants are missing. Ambastha there urges the industry to invest time and energy to be more aware of the wastage and the terrible environmental impact of manufacturing. ThreadSol too offers solutions like intelloBuy and intelloCut to reduce fabric wastage in factories by upto 10 per cent, thereby boosting profits by 50 per cent.