Preconditions 

• Funding and financing: access to EU/public funding can be crucial to support the initial investment required to develop and/or purchase R&I solutions for circular design. Public funding needs to be coupled with private capital to ensure long-term economic sustainability, as technologies for circular design and manufacturing (e.g. energy or water-efficient technologies) entail long-term paybacks (3). 

• Economic and social context: for commercialisation and take-up of circular design solutions for textiles, sufficient purchasing power is needed, both in B2B and B2C contexts, as circular business models tend to be at a competitive disadvantage compared to traditional ones (6). (see: drawbacks) 

• Project governance and implementation modalities: Collaborative development of innovative design solutions needs to involve not only designers and scientists, but also experts in manufacturing, life cycle assessment (LCA), consumer behaviour, circular business models, and automated waste-sorting technologies. 

Enabling conditions 

• Policy and regulatory/legal framework:  

• Product design policies with targets for enhanced reusability, reparability, recyclability (6), e.g.: in public procurement, such as Green Public Procurement with an emphasis on eco-designed textiles; material passports to ensure traceability of fibres and materials and improve reuse and recyclability; promotion of certification and ecolabels, signalling that a product or a service is environmentally friendly and good quality (e.g.EU Ecolabel and ISO standards for textiles and textile products), or it’s produced from recycled materials;  

• Subsidies, incentives and taxation: VAT or tax reduction on redesign/upcycling activities; tax incentives for textile products containing recycled content; tax penalties on conventional products; ad hoc de-taxation; taxes on virgin materials) (6). These measure could contribute to internalising the environmental costs of virgin fibres and effectively give recycled fibres and material reuse an economic advantage; encourage manufacturers to apply design for recycling in their operations; and steer the textiles value-chain towards a more circular and sustainable economy (2). 

• Bans or restrictions on single use or non-recyclable materials: e.g. extended producer responsibility schemes (3). 

• Project governance and implementation modalities: Citizen-engagement initiatives such as events, conferences, workshops, and stakeholder meetings to disseminate the project concept and activities are important to engage relevant actors, create new business opportunities, and maximise the chances of take up, as noted by VegeaTextile (2). The use of co-creation methods can prove very productive, especially in the design field, and help open new research lines, as experienced in the Refream project.  

• Funding and financing: Access to EU/public funding and innovation procurement can further incentivise the development of R&I solutions for circular design;  

• Economic and social context: Training (e.g. Design4Circle, Latvia) for companies, researchers, employees, and students to build local skills and innovation potential in the field of textile and design. 

EXTERNAL LINKS:  

1. Botta, V., Cabral, I., Durable, repairable and mainstream: How ecodesign can make our textiles circular, European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ECOS), 2021. 

2. Dissanayake, D. G. K., and D. Weerasinghe, "Towards circular economy in fashion: review of strategies, barriers and enablers", Circular Economy and Sustainability, 2021: 1-21. 

3. Ellen MacArthur Foundation, A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future, 2017 

4. European Commission, Commission Communication on a EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, 2022 

5. European Environment Agency (EEA), Textiles and the environment: the role of design in Europe’s circular economy, 2022 

6. Köhler, A., et al., Circular Economy Perspectives in the EU Textile sector, JRC Technical report, 2021. 

7. Laitala, K. and Klepp, I. G., “Environmental improvement by prolonging clothing use period”, Conference report: Towards sustainability in the Textile and Fashion industry, 2011. 

8. Laitala, K, et al., “Making Clothing Last: A Design Approach for Reducing the Environmental Impacts”, International Journal of Design, 2015, 9: 93-107.  

9. OVAM, Ecodesign criteria for consumer textiles, 2021. 

10. WRAP, Design for Longevity - Guidance on increasing the active life of clothing, 2013           

LONGEVITY and REUSABILITY 

• Extending the life of clothes by 33% (i.e. 9 months) can reduce the carbon footprint by 27% (i.e. 10 MtCO2e) (1) (10); 

• Reducing new garment production by 5% through increased duration of first use, reuse, and repair could deliver environmental benefits equivalent to 20 tonnes of CO2 emissions (4);  

• If the number of times a garment is worn doubled, GHG emissions would decrease by approximately 44%, as compared to the production of a new garment (3). 

RECYCLABILITY and NEW MATERIALS 

• Textiles made from recycled materials have lower emissions than those made from virgin materials (3); 

• VegeaTextile sustains that the use of (waste) vegetable feedstock instead of animal feedstock for the production of leather-like materials can reduce CO2 emissions, thanks to the renewable nature of the feedstock, which consumes CO2 for growing, and the production process, considerably less polluting than the conventional ones.  

DIGITAL SOLUTIONS for textiles 

• Rodinia suggests that the waste-minimised and waterless production process (AI-based), non-toxic dyes and low-energy machinery, result in a 95 % CO2 reduction per garment. Furthermore, the nearshore supply chain leads to a 27 % decrease in transportation emissions (compared to an average Chinese ‘dyeing and finishing’ factory in the Beijing region). 

• According to H2COLOR-AUX, by employing their novel dyeing technology, 60% of water consumption for a standard garment and 60% of the total energy costs can be saved, halving the CO2 emissions. 

Examples  

CIRCTEX is focuses on the development of recycling and production technologies for PET workwear, such as innovative sewing threads and industrial microwaves for easy disassembly, to decrease non-renewable input materials and the ecological impact in textiles (Interreg North-West Europe, 2019-2022). 

H2COLOR-AUX aims at contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions by validating a novel polymer for the reduction of water consumption and energy usage in textiles dyeing processes (Horizon 2020, 2020-2022). 

Naturella is a project aimed at proving the durability and environmental sustainability of a patented, 77% biodegradable leather tanned using biodegradable, organic ingredients, and implementing a short-chain business model for increased sustainability (Horizon 2020, 2018-2019). 

Refream develops innovative, art-inspired textiles solutions through a co-creation approach in the fields of additive manufacturing, smart textiles, and sustainable finishing, focussing on customization and small-scale production in an urban environment through digitalised manufacturing (Horizon 2020, 2018-2021).  

Rodinia aims at developing a production process for the just-in-time mass-customisation of garments according to customers need, using state of the art technology (such as digital printing and automated textile cutting) and a proprietary AI for high-speed and low-impact production (Horizon 2020, 2019-2020). 

Trash2Cash is a project that implemented a Design-Driven Material Innovation methodology for the production of new materials through chemical recycling of paper and textile waste, and the prototyping of final garments and textiles, obtained e.g. with the use of zero-waste pattern-cutting techniques and low-environmental impact finishing processes (Horizon 2020, 2015-2018).  

VegeaTextile aims to improve the sustainability of the leather goods industry through technology by offering a new solution for the use of low value agricultural wastes in the production of an innovative bio-based material that provides an alternative to animal and synthetic leather (Horizon 2020, 2018-2019).