1149639

editorial2023
WMR0010.1177/0734242X221149639Waste Management & ResearchEditorial

Editorial

Waste Management & Research

Fast fashion and the Circular Economy:

2023, Vol. 41(3) 497­–498
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/0734242X221149639
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Without doubt, clothing represents a basic human need. It is there- 250 10

Synthec fibres
9
fore understandable that the consumption of apparel has grown Growth rate 5.55%
200 8
massively with population growth and human development. As Populaon
7

Populaon / 109
such, the per-capita consumption of textile fibres as the main con-

Volume / 106 t
150 6
stituent of apparel has increased from 5.9 kg/capita in 1970 to 5
13.0 kg/capita in 2020 (CIRFS, 2021). This growth is particularly 100 4

exorbitant for fibres based on synthetic polymers, which are not 3

sustainable per se, when produced from fossil resources. As
sketched in Figure 1, the production volume of synthetic fibres
has multiplied 14-fold from 1970 (4.8 × 106 tonnes) to 2020
(70.0 × 106 tonnes), which reflects an average annual rate of plus
5.55%. If this growth continues, the production volume will have
doubled by 2032 compared to 2020, and in 2039 it will even break
through the 200 million tonnes mark. The massive increase in per-
capita consumption in mature markets in recent years is mainly
due to the fast fashion business model. Fast fashion refers to a
business model involving short lead times, that is, the period from
design from scratch, via production, to selling items to the cus-
tomer having decreased considerably (Christopher et al., 2004). In
2020, the turnover of the nine largest corporations in the fast fash-
ion sector was over 73 × 109 EUR, with Inditex alone holding
28% (i.e. 20 × 109 EUR) of the market share (Statista, 2021). The
fast fashion industry is also an important employer, with Inditex
alone employing 165,042 people in 2021 (Inditex, 2022a).
In recent years, the European Union has set itself the goal of
transforming and developing our current linear economy model
into circularity. A Circular Economy (CE) is understood as a regen-
erative, self-sustaining system in which resource consumption and
waste production are minimised by closing energy and material
cycles. Typically, sustainable design, maintenance, repair, reuse,
remanufacturing, refurbishing and recycling are proven means to
achieve this goal. Due to the amendment of the Waste Framework
Directive (Directive (EU) 2018/851), textiles are also included in
the concept of the CE. The EU Commission expects the transition
to a CE not only to reduce environmental impacts (e.g., 450 million
tonnes less CO2 emissions by 2030), but also to improve the secu-
rity of supply with raw materials and to have a positive effect on
employment (580,000 new jobs) (EC, 2020).
On a superficial level, it could be concluded that fast fashion in
combination with a CE can form an excellent symbiosis. In that,
the business model of fast fashion can provide the population with
affordable fashion. Thus, the possibility of expressing personality
and creativity through fashion and clothing is affordable not only
for rich people – a levelling effect, socially speaking. Furthermore,
Inditex, to give just one example, is already making efforts to
cover its energy consumption from renewable sources, to use sus-
tainably produced cotton, to use polyester from recycled materials
and to ensure social and ethical standards (Inditex, 2022b). The
50 2
1
0 0
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040
Year
Figure 1. Production volume of synthetic fibres (CIRFS, 2021)
and forecast (assuming an annual growth of 5.55%) compared
to world population including forecast (low, medium and high
scenario) (UNO, 2022).
promotion of recycling (of textiles) is not least anchored in the
EU CE Package and could help reduce the textile industry’s need
for virgin raw materials (polymers). Ideally, the textiles no longer
needed by customers are fed into a recycling process – in accord-
ance with the CE – and the business model in question also gener-
ates enough material to establish a proper business case where the
materials are reprocessed for a new product cycle. It has been
reported that when textile fibres or polymers (referring to at least
the quantity components) can be derived during recycling, and
new yarns (by, e.g., melt-extrusion or secondary spinning) and
subsequently garments are produced, this would allow for a high
degree of efficiency of such a circular textile system (Rechberger
et al., 2021). In addition, new ‘green jobs’ could be created
through textile recycling. – So, everything settled?
Not quite. A more detailed assessment of the approach
described above shows some system-relevant weaknesses.
Providing the benefit of being able to match the latest fashion
styles, boosting sales and profits, probably even making it easier
by sheer and steady amount to put in place a textile recycling
system, the business principle in discussion also leads to a rapid
change of collections and ultimately to an unsustainable and
increased consumption of resources. The problem today, how-
ever, already starts with collection, which is a prerequisite for
any down-stream recycling process, but in many EU countries it
covers only a small percentage of the textiles put on the market
and focuses only on re-wearable garments (Watson et al., 2018).
As a result, the amount of textile material feasible for recycling
is quite small, so that recycling processes are not established,
despite increasing consumption. Vice versa, there is no reason for
collectors to look for textiles for recycling, as there are no robust
recycling processes available to them on an industrial scale.
498
Thus, a large fraction of end-of-use textiles end up in residual
waste and will (at best) be used for thermal recovery.
Due to the obligation to collect textiles separately from house-
hold waste from 2025, it seems possible to escape this dilemma.
Even if the targets for 2025 are not yet set, it is very likely that
it will not be sufficient to focus on re-useable garments only.
The Commission has also announced that an extended producer
responsibility for textiles will become mandatory in the EU (EC,
2022). A large amount of collected textiles that are no longer
suitable for reuse will make it necessary to develop recycling
processes to return the materials to the production cycle.
Even if one optimistically assumes that the (fibre-to-fibre)
recycling rate will increase from the current de facto 0 to 50% by
2032, these (very massive) technological advancements would
be counterbalanced by growth in consumption. As sketched in
Figure 1, the production volume of synthetic fibres will presumably
grow from 70 (in 2020) to 140 × 106 tonnes (by 2032) if growth
continues as it has over the past 50 years. Even if by 2032 syn-
thetic fibres would be sourced 50% from secondary raw materials
(derived from end-of-use textiles), the demand for primary (fossil-
based) raw materials remains at the same level (70 × 106 tonnes).
In 2039, the recycling rate would need to be as high as 64% at a
constant growth rate for the demand for primary raw materials
not to rise above 70 × 106 tonnes. In consequence, and even
assuming a high percentage of end-of-use textiles to be recycled
according to the EU CE Package, the fast fashion business model
to be lucrative naturally leads to a high consumption of resources
along the textile processing chain, overtaking recirculation system
progress, which means that the effort would probably be in vain.
Above all, the idea that fast fashion and the CE could be sym-
bionts utterly neglects the fact that the fast fashion business model
frequently goes hand in hand with the use of cheap, non-durable
materials. From a technical point of view, textile recycling means
the process chain must be run through again, at least in part.
Depending on the condition of the end-of-use textiles, they can be
fed back into the processing chain at different points (i.e. as fibres,
as polymers or as monomers), however, not meeting minimum
quality criteria will not yield re-useable material fractions in the
desired high-entry stages (fibre, polymer) (Rechberger et al.,
2021), hence allowing re-entry only at low levels (e.g. retrieval of
monomers) and furthermore, losses will be significant.
Ultimately, recycling can only combat the symptoms and not,
as would be sensible, the causes. With the limits discussed, in
order to achieve a massive reduction in resource consumption, it
Andreas Bartl
TU Wien, Institute of Chemical, Environmental and
Bioscience Engineering, Wien, Austria
Email: andreas.bartl@tuwien.ac.at
Waste Management & Research 41(3)
is essential to reduce the number of textiles sold and guaranteeing
for a higher (material) quality of those items; this cannot be cir-
cumvented, neither from a sustainability point-of-view, nor from
the technical perspective. Possible means to achieve this are an
extension of the useful life (‘design for durability’), reuse or
alternative business models (e.g. leasing). The volume of second-
hand clothing sold within the EU must be massively increased
through accompanying measures such as repairing, re-manufac-
turing and re-purposing as well as raising consumer awareness.
All summed up, it can be clearly deduced that the business fast
fashion business model is not compatible with a CE.
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Wolfgang Ipsmiller
TU Wien, Institute of Chemical, Environmental and
Bioscience Engineering, Wien, Austria
Email: wolfgang.ipsmiller@tuwien.ac.at