Talking and doing are very different things. Despite ambitious corporate targets, new recycling technologies and brands increasingly embracing textile-to-textile (T2T) recycling, gaps still remain when it comes to achieving large-scale implementation.
In a recent Accelerating Circularity webinar, industry leaders cite operations, not technology, as the biggest barrier, where embedding textile-to-textile recycling into global sourcing, product development and supply chain management is proving highly complex.
Sham Sharif Sokker, a sustainability and innovation advisor with more than 17 years of experience leading circular innovation within the global fashion industry, described the industry position as a state where ambitious sustainability goals butt against business realities.
“At this moment there is this realization of the gap that exists between targets being set and what it takes to execute them,” she said.
Those gaps, she said, stem from operational, financial and governance structures that were designed around conventional supply chains rather than new circular systems. They “create a type of deadlock” if not addressed.
That disconnect also emerges inside brands themselves. Sustainability teams might establish ambitious recycled-content targets, but sourcing, merchandising and product development teams—the ones that must create the products that meet quality, cost and delivery expectations—have different incentives.
“They’re looking to meet the quality that they need to at the price that they need to with the vendors they’re allowed to issue purchase orders to, and it just doesn’t quite sync up with the sustainability team’s incentives,” said Sarah Coulter, Americas program director at the non-profit Accelerating Circularity. Plus, she said, they aren’t always brought into the conversation early enough.
Success depends on fiber producers, spinners, mills and manufacturers up and down the value chain integrating new materials into established production systems.
“We can’t just leave out the whole supply chain,” Coulter said. “One-to-one partnerships are important but they’re not going to get us there; it’s a system that we’re trying to build and that we’re trying to change.”
Honest Clarity and Transparency
Bringing recycled fibers into a commercial product raises many questions, including those around fabric performance, technical specifications, pricing premiums, supplier readiness, traceability and lead times. While these issues are nothing new to sourcing professionals, they can be underestimated during early sustainability planning.
The word ‘quality’ is just a single word, but it has many elements around it, said Sharif Sokker. “Are we talking about the initial first fabric quality with these technical specs? Or are we talking about the varieties of the fabric application, the percentages, the mixes, the category? The famous ‘premium?’”
Rather than promising frictionless adoption, she argues that the industry needs honest clarity and transparency about where technologies truly stand.
“One of the biggest issues is false promises or expectations. When we know the risks and when we know what’s needed, then we can manage,” she said. “What does this material really stand for? Can it really have full application? Can we trace it? What is the snowball effect among the supply chain?”
And while KPIs can help measure and deliver transformation (as long as they’re not overly general), they’re still not enough if there’s an implementation disconnect.
“What is the integration into the supply chain strategy? How do we make it happen? Do we introduce new suppliers? What do we need? What are our red lines?” said Sharif Sokker. “[We have to look at all] these operational-slash-financial elements for each transition.”
Education is Key
There’s also a lot of variation in the amount of understanding, both among brands and retailers. “Someone in the brand might be the internal expert on the topic, but the person sitting next to them doesn’t know anything about it and doesn’t care. You know they’re just there to execute on their mandate,” said Coulter.
Education remains a key element, and circularity’s future progress depends on creating shared knowledge, shared roadmaps, shared risks and a shared language for communication.
The latter is particularly important. Even as knowledge of textile recycling has improved significantly over the past several years, translating technical innovation into practical business decisions is key. Accelerating Circularity’s experience has found that progress ramps up when people from different functions and different parts of the value chain learn together.
“I’ve heard people say, ‘I never knew this is how this worked, and now everything that I’ve been hearing from my suppliers makes so much more sense,’” Coulter said.
