Designing for circularity - research in practice
The vast majority of apparel ends up landfilled or burned, while a sliver is recycled back into new textiles. Garment recycling is a strenuous process due to most apparel being made from a mix of fibres that do not separate easily once they have been spun, woven and made into a finished product. This is why at Les Plantes we embrace mono-materials and blends of cellulose-based fibres in selecting our fabrics and our trims, suited for easy recyclability and end-of-life management. So what does designing for circularity look like?
On the macro-environmental level, the most refined circular intent collapses if collection, sorting and recycling infrastructures are missing or misaligned. While recycling methods exist, they are constrained by material input, product construction and cost.
Material blends are difficult to process, and contamination is common. Mechanical and chemical recycling methods work best when textiles are made from a single material, or materials that can be processed identically, yet the majority of garments combine cotton, polyester, elastane, wool and other blends. Blended fibres reduce the quality of recycled output and complicate separation.
Additionally, trims, the small components such as buttons, zippers, labels, shoulder pads, fusing and elastics, also determine whether a garment can be recycled at all. These pieces are overwhelmingly made from entirely different materials from the main fabric, and disrupt sorting and fibre recovery. Industry research shows that garments frequently require labour intensive disassembly because automated systems struggle with the wide variety of hardware and mixed construction methods. As a result, many items are diverted away from recycling streams.
Finally, garment sorting is challenge. A recycling system only works if materials can be collected and separated correctly. The Boston Consulting Group reports that the infrastructure needed for effective end of life sorting remains limited. Research into sorting technologies shows that garments vary widely in fibre composition, condition and construction, making it difficult for sorters to create clean, consistent streams. Manual sorting is slow and costly, while automated systems using optical or digital identification are still scaling.
Another issue sits in the way most clothing is designed. Garments are rarely created with recyclability in mind, and decisions made at the design stage make a significant difference later. Research on circular design practices points out that inadequate design choices prevent many garments from being recognised as recyclable or processed efficiently. Even small elements like polyester sewing thread on cotton garments introduce mixed material complications that disrupt fibre to fibre recovery.
Importantly, the global recycling system does not have the scale to process the enormous volume of textile waste produced each year, and the gap between waste generation and available recycling facilities continues to widen.
In summary, garment recycling is difficult, as our current fashion system was not built for circularity. From fibre blends to trims, from design choices to infrastructure gaps, every stage of the clothing lifecycle creates obstacles. Recycling tries to reverse a process that was never designed to go backwards, which is why true circularity requires rethinking materials, design and supply chains from the start.