The problem with fast fashion

Currently, 100 billion garments are produced each year. Consumers are keeping their clothes for roughly half the amounts of time they did 15 years ago. And so every second, a truckload size of clothes goes to the landfill. Less than 1% of clothes are recycled, resulting in an enormous amounts of waste. In monetary terms, over $200 billion worth of clothes are wasted each year. In climate terms, somewhere between two and eight percent of global emissions come from fashion. We’re currently on track to see roughly a quarter of our carbon budget taken up by apparel in 2050, and that’s assuming a two degree temperature rise scenario. The problem is clear. We clearly need to transform fashion. And this need provides a perfect opportunity to talk about moving to a circular economy.

What the term “circular economy” means and why it’s a helpful framework

Circularity for Cotopaxi means keeping both textiles, fibers, as well as products in longer lifecycle. Annie says that they use the work of the mighty Ellen MacArthur Foundation, who’s done some pioneer thinking in the circular economy

Apparel is extremely wasteful at every point in its lifecycle, and we have a need to reconsider both inputs and outputs. Annie explains that this means asking, “How can we decrease waste while also thinking about the materials we use and select? And how do we decrease the intents of impacts on environment at every lifecycle phase?” Keeping things more circular means moving from a linear system, which is what we currently have. The vast majority of it ends up as landfill waste – not even landfill waste in developed countries who are producing this demand, but in developing countries as waste byproducts where they then off-gas, cause micro-plastic pollution and create all kinds of other issues. Moving in a direction that’s more environmentally and socially sustainable for the long term means keeping the inputs in longer loops.

Cotopaxi is very focused on thinking conscientiously about the kinds of products they feel deserve to get made, and are editing out choices that they feel don’t need to get made (because someone else is already making it or the products aren’t necessarily going to promote a more experiential lifestyle). In collaboration, they are thinking about everything from how scrap materials are being used to working with partners like TERSUS to drive change, and they’re really leaning into a future where they’d love 50% of their sales to come from resales.

What TERSUS is doing and the problem that they’re aiming to solve

Peter explains how TERSUS is the operational backbone from a service provider perspective of textile circularity. The core of their offering is waterless cleaning. They started as a manufacturer of hardware technology, building waterless cleaning machines that they thought the market was ready to buy and use. They sold these machines as equipment for a number of years with not great success.

In 2018, TERSUS pivoted their business model to continue manufacturing the technology, but also become our own customer by building out an operational footprint to work with brands directly. They’ve cleaned everything from apparel to ballistic missile parts with partners ranging from Cotopaxi, Patagonia, Eileen Fisher, REI and North Face to a US naval base. They’re doing some permutation of cleaning repairs, called single SKU logistics, which includes pick, pack and ship to the end customer. TERSUS is also taking part in end of useful life reclamation activities, such as up-cycling and down-cycling. Peter says they will probably become one of the largest raw down recyclers in the country, working to extract down from end of life garments, clean it and resell it to manufacturers. So in the spirit of the circularity definition that Annie put out there, TERSUS is certainly enabling brands and retailers to get the most use out of stuff they make.

Peter points out that the best thing a consumer can buy from an impact perspective is nothing and the second best thing is something that’s used. With companies like Cotopaxi looking to break ground in the secondhand market, TERSUS can play a meaningful role role as a service provider in a new sort of operational realm for a lot of these brands.

How we all can contribute to reducing waste and building a more circular economy

Peter: There’s no reason not to buy secondhand. It kind of gets back to self examination and the impact you have. Another way to contribute is by spending time in nature. I spend all of my free time outside and reconnect with space and earth and natural resources. That is always a very, very grounding exercise for not just how you consume, but how you kind of live within your community on Earth. And I’d encourage anybody who’s not getting outside to do that more often.

Annie: Consumers, first of all, can examine their relationship with consumption. Americans in general throw away 68 pounds of clothing a year, which is an insane statistic. It’s like a kid’s weight worth of fabric. Most Americans buy three to five, highly carbon intensive, completely unnecessary items that they will forget they own in three to six months. So really considering that and whatever you’re getting off of the hamster wheel of consumption, whether or not even viewing that as a kind of addiction, and then what the replacement is. I ended up in the outdoor industry because I grew up in the mountains. And so for me, too, I think exposure to nature, goes hand in hand with reinforcing more circular habits. The more examples of that, that you see, is great, but also understanding that your waste has value. Everything that you buy that feels like there’s only a benefit to you comes from something. I really appreciate the Dasgupta report, which was commissioned by the UK Government. It’s really touching upon this idea of natural capital, that literally everything comes from nature, every item you’re looking at, every piece of clothing, every plane you get on has inputs that come from nature, and the more we use of that, and the weaker our stewardship is of that, the less there is of it. These regenerative systems become less regenerative and more finite. Understanding that bigger picture and perspective is important. I think more practically, buying used, buy less, and then understand that, once you’re done with something, try to resell it, try to reintroduce it back into this model as a service and continue your sense of stewardship with that item. And understand that you have a responsibility, just not just what you buy and how you buy, but also how you discard and how you recycle.

Resources Mentioned

• Cotopaxi
• TERSUS Solutions
• Ellen MacArthur Foundation
• The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review

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• Connect with Annie on LinkedIn
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