This article was originally posted at Circular Economy Club.
The current fashion system encourages a take, make, dispose system. A system where we take the raw materials we need, mix them with chemicals, sell them to our customers, and never think about them again. Can we really accept business models like these anymore?
Supporters of the circular economy are saying no. Instead they believe we need to view our products as valuable resources that we need to get back into the system at the end of their life cycles. We need to move away from the take, make, dispose mind-set to a circular system thinking where we design products with their end of life in mind. We need to move away from the concept of throwing things away – because away is somewhere.
In fact, it is estimated that £140 million worth of used clothing (350,000 tonnes) goes to landfills in the UK every year (WRAP, 2011). Just in the UK. Circular economy concepts can be applied to all industries where we need to ensure that the products we make can be cycled indefinitely. Circular Fashion focuses on the fashion industry and encourages all stakeholders to change the whole fashion system to avoid valuable resources going to landfills. The idea behind Circular Fashion is to avoid this by design.
Read the rest of the article on Circular Economy Club.
