Circularity has gone from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘must have’ as stricter sustainability regulations close in on the apparel industry.  

Making circularity workable, at scale, is a challenge that brands are trying to solve.  What looks fairly simple at first glance, turns out to be a minefield of obstacles when you get down to actually executing.  Especially when you are trying to integrate circularity into a fast-paced supply chain with a wide range of products and heavy cost pressure.  There’s simply no elasticity for adding one more step to the chain.

Fortunately, companies and researchers have been working on technologies that address the practical obstacles to circularity, including identifying discarded textiles, separating blended fibers, dismantling garments, and turning recovered materials back into apparel. Recent examples range from a recently announced AI-sorting development to recycling technologies supported by long-term brand purchasing agreements. 

While many of these technologies are still scaling up, they represent important progress toward integrating circularity into mainstream apparel production.