A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future

2017 | ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation works with business, government and academia to build a framework for an economy that is restorative and regenerative by design.

Their report; A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future, identifies the fashion industry’s current take-make-dispose model as the root cause of its environmental problems and economic value loss.

“Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned. An estimated USD 500 billion value is lost every year due to clothing being barely worn and rarely recycled. If nothing changes, by 2050 the fashion industry will use up a quarter of the world’s carbon budget. Washing clothes releases half a million tonnes of plastic microfibres into the ocean every year, equivalent to more than 50 billion plastic bottles.”

And they’ve proposed a way to fix it.

The vision laid out in the report is of a system that, “not only puts a stop to these damaging trends, but also summons the creative power of the fashion industry to develop a new textiles economy. In such a system, clothes are designed to last longer and be worn more. New business models allow clothes to be rented, resold, or recycled more easily. And no toxic substances or pollutants are released when clothes are produced and used.”

We highly recommend giving the report a read, and be sure to check out the wealth of other resources Ellen MacArthur Foundation have available on the Circular Economy;

Ellen MacArthur Foundation, A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future, (2017, https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications).