Our thinking

Can fashion ever truly be circular?

1 October, 2020

This week, British online fashion giant, ASOS, launched its first ‘circular fashion’ collection.

The aim is to design clothes that meet its eight circularity principles, which include zero-waste design, minimised waste, recycled input, durability, versatility, mono-material disassembly, and up-cycling. These eight principles are aligned with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s three foundations of a circular economy: designing-out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. ASOS has committed to ensuring that each product in its ‘circular fashion’ collection must meet a minimum of two of these principles.

It hopes that this collection will allow consumers to buy sustainably at an affordable price point – and we couldn’t think of a better vision for them. The problem is that, at the moment, the delivery falls down.

Sustainable fashion experts have been quick to point out though that “creating one small collection that cherry-picks circular principles is akin to putting a plaster on a broken leg”. They’ve also spotted that ASOS has failed to announce plans on how consumers can recycle or repurpose their items when they have finished with them. How can the promise of circularity be delivered if ASOS is not closing the loop at the end of the items’ lives?

On this, ASOS also stands in contrast to other brands that have created innovative solutions to address the challenge of closing the loop in fashion. For example, Adidas has partnered with London based start-up, Stuffstr, to launch a new online take-back scheme. Adidas customers can return any items that they have purchased in recent years, no matter the condition, and receive Adidas vouchers in return. Stuffstr will pick-up items and handle resale via existing e-commerce sites like eBay.

This partnership highlights the need to think differently when addressing the challenge of closing the loop in fashion. So, although ASOS has made a great first step in creating its eight principles, it’s now time for them to get creative with practical low-barrier solutions for their customers to reuse and recycle all ASOS products easily.

By Gemma Coate