The circular economy lacks a common language. Even though there has seen a significant increase in interest in the circular economy and in circular principles over the past few years Many mention these terms without really explaining what they mean. And, even if the term is defined, the definition varies widely. Depending on the problem being addressed, the audience, or the lens through which the author views the world. As there is no common definition or language, it's hard for businesses or cities to understand how to apply circular strategies.
At Circle Economy, they've made a start, at mapping the language that's already used by various actors in the circular economy space. this they've developed a framework, called DISRUPT.
It has 7 key elements
the first element, is 'Design for the Future'.
Designers are often seen as being at the helm when it comes to driving sustainable change in the fashion Industry. And it is no wonder why, when an estimated 80% of a product’s environmental and economic impact is determined at the design stage. But how can you design for the future? And what exactly is circular design? We define Circular Design, according to three key strategies;
Minimal Waste, Durability and Cyclability.
Each of these strategies breaks down further,
Firstly, design for minimal waste. All along the textile supply chain, textile waste is generated, whether post-industrial, pre-consumer or post-consumer textiles. Designers can help to tackle the textile waste mountain in two ways;
1) by applying deliberate design strategies to use their materials as efficiently as possible incorporating zero waste pattern techniques, for instance. Or using advanced technological solutions to produce on demand, or develop their products using 3D modelling techniques. designers can source and re-use existing textile waste streams, thereby reducing the need for virgin fabrics.
2) design for durability. Between 2000 and 2014, the average consumer started buying 60% more garments and using their garments for half as long. This fast cycle of consumption and disposal, is fuelled in part, by the twin methods of planned and perceived obsolescence. Planned obsolescence means that clothing is designed for a short life; designed to break, designed to fall apart. And perceived obsolescence means that consumers perceive that their clothing is outdated, is old. Because of the advance of new trends, styles. The first cornerstone in beating planned and perceived obsolescence is to design garments that last. We know that extending the life of clothing by an extra nine months alone,would reduce carbon, water, and waste footprints by around 20–30%.
So how do we design for durability? There are two strategies.
Whether it is using high quality materials, finishings, and construction, or ensuring that style and fit are timeless and not trend-sensitive: physical durability is all about designing and constructing a garment so that it can resist damage and wear, and serve a long and useful life. durability is not all about quality. An emotional durability may play an important role too. As Professor Jonathan Chapman said 'Waste is nothing more than a failed relationship'. by designing garments that engage and delight the consumer over time, our heightened emotional attachment and satisfaction with them can ultimately save them from landfill.
how can you design products that get more beautiful with age for instance? Or invite you to co-create with them. Some scientists and design experts are even questioning whether longer garment lives are always necessarily a good thing. And rather a push in the industry to consider design for appropriate life cycle. For example when designing with intent, could a short-cycle, but hyper-recyclable, fast-fashion garment, acually be the future of fashion?Food for thought.
design for cyclability. While designing for long life is a basic and critical principle of the circular economy, the unavoidable truth is that all garments will eventually be disposed of by the consumer. And what then? A good design will plan for this inevitability. Designers need to adopt a ‘pro-active’ systems-based approach that identifies potential barriers to repair, reuse and recycling at the outset and in doing so ‘designs out’ complicating factors. So while repair and reuse of garments is often tackled through the business model for instance, clever design and the application of disassembly and modularity principles can further optimise this strategy. Conducting research and user testing, to assess where the damage is likely to occur in a garment, allows us to design in such a way that a product part can be easily replaced, upgraded, or fixed once damaged.
When a garment can no longer be repaired or reused, it should be recycled back into new high-quality textiles. In order for designers to correctly design for a recycling, they must firstly understand the current and upcoming processes that occur at a product’s end-of-life, so that they can ensure their products have effective ‘inbuilt’ recycling routes that can be easily and fully incorporated back into the material cycle.
Basic guidelines here include the use of mono fibre, mono material for ease of recycling, the elimination of hazardous toxins, dyestuffs, and coatings, and the elimination of any physical contaminants such as hardware, embellishment or electronics. there are multiple concrete ways, in which we can design garments for the future.
ways to design for the future: minimal waste, durability and cyclability, examples:
using Dyneema® ultra-lightweight fibre. Weight for weight, Dyneema® ultra-lightweight fibre is up to 15 times stronger than steel and up to 40 percent stronger than aramid fibre. It is therefore designed for durability, as the fiber is much stronger than regular fibres, so we assume that due to its strength, the garment and will not show signs of wear and tear as quickly as garments without the Dyneema® fibre. https://www.dsm.com/dyneema/en_GB/home.html
using 3D design programmes. 3D programmes helps identify how patterns can be cut to minimize textile cutting waste. Therefore, it is designed for minimal waste.
using Petit Pli for children .The clothing offered by Petit Pli is designed to grow with your children as they get older. The aim is to reduce the need for children’s clothing, as they change clothing size frequently in early stages of life. As the garment is expected to be worn for multiple use phases (from 9 months to 4 years), using materials and production techniques that allow for such heavy usage is a typical example of design for durability. Additionally, this is an example of design for cyclability, as the garments are expected to be used for a longer period of time, hopefully by multiple families and children. https://shop.petitpli.com/pages/lets-talk-about-us
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