Welcome to Beyond Threads, the podcast where we explore the latest in fashion, lifestyle and logistics! In our latest episode, Erik Janssen Steenberg sits down with Nicole Bassett, Circularity Lead at Bleckmann, and Hans Robben, Programme Manager for The Renewal Workshop, our team of circular fashion experts. Together, they discuss how logistics partners can support brands on their journey from a ‘take, make, waste’ approach to a more circular mindset. Check out the episode now to get the full story!
What is circular fashion?
Traditionally, the fashion industry has been based on ‘linear’ production, where raw materials are used once to make products which are then discarded. Circular fashion, on the other hand, is all about keeping these materials in circulation for much longer. It’s based on three core principles: eliminating waste, extending the life of existing products, and regenerating natural resources. These principles shift the focus from producing new items to designing products that can be reused, resold or recycled.
Responding to consumer demands and regulatory pressure
Modern consumers are acutely aware of the environmental costs of fast fashion and are changing their shopping habits as a result. “Globalisation and technology have helped people see the impact of fast fashion worldwide, making them more likely to support brands that embrace circular practices,” explains Nicole. “While legislation – such as the EU’s Green Deal – is driving change, many brands are already ahead of the game and actively working to integrate circular principles, which is great news!”
Circular benefits for business and the planet
It’s clear that circular models offer a host of environmental advantages by helping to reduce dependence on virgin raw materials. But what many people don’t realise is that there are also plenty of commercial benefits to circular models. For example, garment renewal enables damaged (returned) items to be refurbished to like-new condition and resold, often at full retail price. This allows brands to benefit from revenue streams that were previously unavailable – as well as appealing to eco-conscious consumers.
Tailored repair programmes deliver impressive results
Thanks to bespoke recommerce programmes set up by Bleckmann’s Renewal Workshop team, major brands such as COS and fashion outlet platform Otrium have already begun repairing and reselling damaged items. “Up to 50% of damaged items returned to warehouses can be repaired and sold again for full price,” says Hans. “There are huge gains to be made by implementing circular models, and I’d encourage every fashion brand to consider which approach would suit them best.”
Want to find out more about the logistics of circular fashion? Check out the latest episode of the Beyond Threads podcast to get the full story!
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Transcript
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Hello, and welcome to yet another Beyond Threads Podcast by Bleckmann. I'm your host, Erik Janssen Steenberg and today we will take another deep dive in trends and developments of fashion and lifestyle logistics. For this topic, I am joined by our experts being Nicole Bassett, Bleckmann Circularity Lead and Hans Robben, Programme Manager of The Renewal Workshop. Thank you for being here today.
Hans Robben: Thank you for having us.
Nicole Bassett: Thank you.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Nicole, Hans, to kick things off: What is circular fashion? And can you briefly introduce yourself to the audience? Nicole?
Nicole Bassett: Sure.Thank you for having me today.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: It's a pleasure.
Nicole Bassett: My background has been in sustainability in the apparel sector for almost twenty years. And I worked on lots of different things around helping brands with their supply chains and sustainable materials and in 2015 I started a company called The Renewal Workshop to enable brands to participate in the circular economy by having a company to do all the services and operations for them. I ran that company for a number of years and in 2022, we were acquired by Bleckmann. For the last two years, I've been part of the Bleckmann team, working on circularity.
Hans Robben: I'm Hans, within Bleckmann the Programme Manager for The Renewal Workshop. With The Renewal Workshop, we take care of all operational aspects of renewing items and preparing them for a second life, a third life, and so on.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Thank you, guys. Nicole, can you explain the core activities, or the core ingredients of a circular fashion economy?
Nicole Bassett: I love circular fashion It's really a huge opportunity and shift for the apparel industry, outside of sustainability.So, what is it?bIt's easiest to describe circular fashion when you think about it in contrast to linear fashion.The linear way of thinking is the kind of 'business as usual' today. Brands will make products from raw materials and sell them and at the end of the use of those products by customers they usually get sent to landfill or are incinerated.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Yeah.
Nicole Bassett: The circular economy, or circular fashion world,looks at business differently. It's rooted around three principles. One is that we design out waste and pollution. We're no longer throwing anything away, throughout the whole cycle from the creation to the end of the cycle. And we're also keeping products in use longer. We're relying on business models like resale, and used, and rental and recycling of materials. We're not having anything be thrown away.The other principle is around regenerating natural capital. Thinking about: where do materials come from so we're not exploiting the planet to do so. Circular fashion really is a sort of subset of a circular economy. So, circular fashion is the whole concept that brands are taking products and thinking through their life cycle generating a business around using them multiple times and generating revenue multiple times and really shifting the way business is done.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Right. And Hans, what are the benefits to the brands, the environment and of course the consumers of a circular fashion economy?
Hans Robben: Well I think. Most importantly, there is the environmental impact. If you reuse an item, you avoid a new item being made you avoid new virgin materials being extracted from our planet, that's one. Second is the economic benefits for brands.They get to explore new opportunities for growth and a declining linear supply chain, basically. And for consumers, it's an opportunity to explore new types of garments and to express themselves, maybe, as: I'm a person that cares for the environment I'm wearing something that has been worn before or renting an item and I'm not buying a new item, I'm not buying into the linear fashion industry.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Yes. And Nicole, why do we now see that it is also the customers that are driving this push towards a more sustainable fashion practice? What we tend to call 'the green wave' that is coming for us.
Nicole Bassett: I think what's super interesting is how much the world has changed since I was a kid.This awareness, this globalisation and connectivity. We didn't know what was happening in the impact of the textile industry in India or in China twenty years ago, and now we know. We're also very much faced with the issues of pollution or the issues of climate change and for a lot of people, they feel very pulled to do something for themselves. They want to make a change and not contribute to harm. One of the actions that a lot of people take is looking at their own habits and buying practices and saying: if I buy something that's pre-owned or I can rent a product then I'm not contributing to the making of new products. And so you're starting to see a lot more people you know, spend their dollars in a way that is more environmental. And I think circularity has shifted things for a lot of people, because only in the last ten years or so has used or resale come online and it makes it easy to buy not-new products. So you're seeing growth in circularity with consumers as well.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Yeah. And, of course, I'm based in Europe and I know we're running the gauntlet on this one but to what extent do you see that the changing legislation is a contributing factor to the ever quicker evolution of circularity?
Hans Robben: Well, I think legislation is an important factor but it's not yet moving brands at the speed that they should be moving, let's say. We know that, certainly within Europe by 2030 there will be the Green Deal, translated into local binding legislation.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Yes.
Hans Robben: But that's still five to six years from now. So we see a bit of a hesitation with brands: What exactly will this legislation be? What way do we have to react to it? But it is clear it will become mandatory to have circularity at the basis of your business model.
Nicole Bassett: Yeah.. And maybe I'll add to that being based in the US, there isn't that same level of legislation. A couple of laws are getting passed around textile waste or extended producer responsibility but it's a couple of states. Whereas what's happening in Europe is so important, and it's a big deal. It's a real big deal because the industry has had the last ten, fifteen years to voluntarily clean up the mess. And now, legislation has come in and it's actually really robust and thoughtful legislation. Looking at waste, looking at designing for circularity. It's thinking through all the components that are needed to create a circular economy for the fashion industry.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Yeah. And looking at the enormous peak in interest in fast fashion. I don't think it's a moment too soon. So, somewhat of a counter-movement,so to speak. Yeah. So, the fashion brands that are now embracing circularity what do you, or you two, see as activities that these brands are doing to become more greener, leaner, circular?
Nicole Bassett: I think there are a lot of things that are happening around circularity. One thing that is a helpful differentiator to think about is in sustainability, there is a lot of talk about: I'm replacing conventional cotton with organic. A lot of swapping.I have my conventional polyester, now I have recycled polyester, all of that. In circularity, what's trickier is that we are talking about a systems change. Not only do your products have to change but the whole business around it. So, for a brand, that's a lot.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Cradle-to-grave.
Nicole Bassett: Yeah, and now we're shifting to cradle-to-cradle.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Correct.
Nicole Bassett: Everyone is doing business one way and now you have to do it a different way. So, what we're seeing is: there are a lot of things that have to change so you'll see a lot of opportunities. For example, one of the biggest challenges in the circular economy is: We don't know what the product is later on in its life. You take the jacket home, cut off the tag, wear it for two years, and send it back. I have no idea what this jacket is or what its MSRP was or anything. So the introduction of digital ID is critical. Legislation around the digital product passport will help push this forward. For brands, if they put what is called a digital ID so that could be a QR code, a barcode, an RFID, on the product it means that the future supply chain your logistics provider, or repair shops, or recyclers can scan the product and get a bunch of information. That's one critical piece that's going to happen. The other thing that brands are starting to do is design their products in a way that they can get either repaired in a more efficient way or they can actually be designed to be recycled. And then, the other one is looking at your operations and saying:My operations are good and efficient at going in one direction how do I engage with my logistics partners or other people to bring the products back and move them around differently. You're starting to see brands invest in that.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Yeah. And do we have examples, Hans, on success stories, so to speak of brands that are tapping into existing possibilities at the moment?
Hans Robben: Sure. We already do see a couple of brands launching their recommerce programme or rescue programme. For example, we have COS, part of the H&M Group that is running a trade-in and resale programme. So customers can send back pre-worn items, they get a voucher in return for them we renew these items in our facilities and prepare them for resale and they are then sold in about seventeen stores now across Europe in a separate corner as a restore collection.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Yeah.
Hans Robben: But we also have a company like Otrium, for example, the online outlet platform which is suffering from high rates of returns, as is, overall, the case in the fashion industry and they decided to have all their damaged returns repaired back to new state so they can be sold as new. That's a pretty, maybe, easy step to take, but still we don't see a lot of brands doing this.Common practice is still: If a return is damaged, we stockpile it on the pile of damaged items and after a couple of years, they are discarded. Whereas we see that fifty percent of damaged returns can be brought back to a new state and can be sold as a new item again at the value of the new item so that's definitely an interesting way of starting in circularity for a brand. And items that cannot be brought back to a new state can be brought back to a state that is still of enough quality for a recommerce programme for example, in the future.So there are enough best practices already out there for brands to get inspired by.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Good to hear that there is so much experience and expertise around. And that brands that are being persuaded to start looking into it don't have to reinvent the wheel..
Hans Robben: Exactly.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Very good. Another important component of the cradle-to-cradle circular economy or fashion economy, is of course the consumer. What role can the consumer play, in your opinion?
Hans Robben: As a consumer now, as Nicole already pointed out, you have a lot more information about what is the garment I'm buying, where is it coming from, how polluting is it if I buy a new garment? So you can make a conscious choice not to buy a new item but to rent an item or to buy it second-hand. Each time you make this choice less resources are being taken from the earth to make a new item so you contribute positively to this transition that we have to make. And maybe you influence your friend, your cousin, your peers and they also start doing the same showing the same behaviour, let's say, and then the industry, next to the legal obligation, will also be moved by consumer choice in the direction of circularity.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Do you foresee that later on...
Nicole Bassett: We move away from naming the recycled or circular product differently to the linear or first-sale product? Yeah, I think one of the great examples is if you look at the car industry, right? You can buy a new car or a pre-owned car right next to it, and you get the quality from. You go to the brand because they have the certification and quality you can expect.But cars are designed to be dismantled, use those parts again and there are services around that.So I think, if we think about what the future can look like is that apparel brands behave a lot more like that. And that businesses are designed so that revenue isn't just coming from new things.We've diversified revenue and it's coming from pre-owned certified things, services. And this is a critical investment companies have to start making because we can't keep doing business the way we're doing it. Our planet is sounding the warning lights we're running out of resources or the resources we have are really getting strained. And so, here is an opportunity to get ahead of the game set your business up for the future so as the supply chain or access to materials is disrupted you as a company have thought through: I can handle this because my business is more resilient inside of a circular one.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Yeah. Okay, thank you for your valuable insights. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have today. But, making sure that, when brands want to reach out and learn more about what we do or, more specifically, what they can do to become or to have a jumpstart in circularity: How can these companies reach out to you?
Hans Robben: I think just reach out to us via the website. Leave a message and we will get in contact with them.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: Perfect. Thanks again for being here today, and for your insights. Thank you.
Hans Robben: Thank you, Erik.
Erik Janssen Steenberg: For you, thank you for joining us today. Another insightful episode, and stay tuned for the next one.Thank you.
