Circularity in Textiles: Circular Sustainability Trends in the UK Textiles Industry

Circularity is the latest trend in textile sustainability. In this type of economy, items never become waste; they are reused, refurbished or involved in a recycling project. This paves the way for the textile industry to use this concept in their green initiative. VTT, one of Europe’s leading analysis organisations, published a trend report recently, describing being circular as a “megatrend’. It also discussed how companies from several industries were collaborating to advance sustainability. 

The EU also has a strategy for sustainable and circular textiles. The strategy urges every business to make the textiles it uses in their products ‘recyclable’ and ‘circular’. 

Circularity Sustainability

In a circular system, products and materials are never wasted. They are regenerated through various processes such as recycling products, refurbishing, re-manufacturing and composting.

Being circular involves 3 principles:

1. Eliminating waste and pollution.
2. Regenerating products and materials.
3. Regenerating nature. This involves moving from a linear economy to a circular one.

When an economy is circular, it "supports natural processes and lets nature thrive". In this situation, we reduce producing waste. This more resilient structure is better for humans, the business industry, and the environment. 

How to Move to a Circular Economy

The global focus is transforming the linear structure by managing the system and altering our throw-away economy. This involves eliminating waste, circulating resources and regenerating nature.

We need to change the system we use to manufacture and produce products and what we do with them so they don’t end as waste.

A Sustainability Leader in Textiles

Major textile business Lindström, which operates throughout Europe and Asia, uses circular business models. It says this system is “designed to reduce the over-production of textiles and conserve natural resources”. It quotes statistics on textile waste from earth.org: 

1. Every year, manufacturers produce 1.92 million tonnes of textile waste. 
2. Global emissions from the clothing industry will increase by 50% by 2030.
3. Fashion is responsible for 20% of global water waste.
4. It takes 20,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of cotton.
5. Almost 10% of microplastics dispersed in the sea every year come from textiles.

Follow our Circular Textiles Initiative

At maake we also produce and print on textiles sustainably. Last year we won the 2023 Twyg Awards for Most Ethical Fabric and Best Custom Printing. Here are our suggestions on how to be more circular:

1.     Minimise Your Impact

• Give textiles a second life (that’s what recycling is all about), instead of producing more. 
• Manufacture new textiles on demand – and only as much as a customer orders.
• Ensure the textiles are hard-wearing.
• Produce textiles in the most sustainable way possible.
• Be more innovative in recycling clothing and textiles.
• Close the loop: reduce excessive textile production.
• Conserve natural resources – we use water and energy as sparingly as possible.

2.     Create Circular Business Models – Give Textiles a Second Life

McKinsey recently researched an informative piece on being circular. Their data shows how by reducing the number of waste manufacturers they currently produce, we could use more sustainable tools and methods to manufacture products. Manufacturers who are not being sustainable are responsible for creating lots of emissions.

If a business changes how it manufactures products, this doesn't mean it will produce less. On the contrary. It will waste less!

Just like we do at maake, that business prints on demand. It prints the amount of fabric a customer orders; no more.

The maakeLess Waste Initiative

What’s more, the textiles offcuts we end up with are part of a recycling initiative we call the maake Less Waste initiative. This is our ‘Zero-to-landfill’ recycling initiative: we find homes for any ‘waste’ textiles generated in our production process. Best of all, these circular textiles are free! It’s our way of reducing fast fashion and excess waste in textiles.

We offer Upcycling Bags in 3 sizes – small (approximately 1kg), medium (around 2kg) and large (up to 15kg). We fill the bags with selected offcuts of textiles – cotton, velvet, linen etc.

The textiles we are recycling are usually plain white, ivory or a natural colour. Sometimes we include a few printed textiles as well. This is ideal for a variety of home and office projects. They are normally the full width of the fabric (140-150cm), and vary in length from 20cm up to 2m.

All you have to do is add one or more Upcycling Bag to your shopping cart (they are free no matter how many you add). If you wish to save on carbon emissions and collect the textiles yourself instead of us delivering them to you, you can do so. All you need to do is click and collect.

We also reward you with a maake Less Waste initiative certificate that you can share with friends and followers on social media!

Order your free Upcycling Bags here!

Circular Supply Models Around the World

Globally, governments are endorsing the circular route. So is Britain. In February, the government announced a plan to establish the first centre for circular economic research in the world. The UN will back this centre.

This is part of the government’s aim to “transition to a greener future”. It is called the International Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Resource Management in the Circular Economy, and opened in April 2024. The centre links to 5 institutions that do research. These research institutions include the University College London (UCL), the University of Exeter, Brunel University London, Swansea University and the British Geological Survey.

How to be Part of the Circular Economy

On its website, wool brand Woolmark explains that wool “can help brands enter more easily into the development of circular products”. 

“Circular design of textile products in the textile industry uses regenerative materials, ensures clothes are used more often and provides pathways for reuse, textile recycling processes and biodegradation at end-of-life,” it says. This is what regenerative fashion is about.

The website offers insight into circular textiles and discusses using and recycling textiles like wool, with textile circularity. Wool is a perfect example of a “100% natural, renewable and biodegradable” resource, which is also good quality.

Biodegradable textiles like wool contain no microplastics, so they do not pollute our oceans or land. However, synthetic textiles are different.

Woolmark says designer Victoria Beckham is the perfect example of a circular fashion brand that “showcases being circular with wool” using high quality textiles.

The designer used the natural dyeing process from Tintoria di Quaregna for her 2024 knitwear collection. Tintoria di Quaregna is a Woolmark licensee.

Beckham's entire collection featured high-quality sustainable materials and standards. It also featured a label on each quality garment where future owners could write their names. This encourages “the use phase of each product to be extended”. Woolmark believes that to extend the life of textile products, we “can reduce their environmental impact by up to 68%”.