The charity shop, thrift store, kilo market; call them what you will, second-hand retailers in all shapes and sizes have been a permanent fixture on our local high streets for decades.
By saving your wardrobe rejects from landfill and bringing them to new and loving owners, they prolong the life of clothes and the materials they are made of.
The role of charity shops in promoting reuse is obvious, and valuable. This kind of high-value recycling is one of the last steps needed to bring about a circular system.
First, we can find ways to reduce consumption: reuse clothes that have already been produced, repair garments, upcycle garments into new fashionable pieces. Then, finally, the materials can be recycled into new high value fibers and fabrics.
Buying second-hand clothes is one of the most efficient ways to promote circularity, introducing no new raw materials into the system, while often supporting charitable causes in the process.
While essential, and much loved by consumers, charity shops face numerous pressures. The volumes of quality donated clothing available for re-sale in-store is diminishing rapidly.
Fast fashion perpetuates a Take-Make-Waste system of cheap and disposable garments, creating an influx of low-quality clothing. A rising proportion of donated low-quality used clothing ends up in the pile of textiles for recycling.
One leading charity retailer, Oxfam, has reported that donations to clothing bins in Ireland increased by 2% in 2017. However, only about 10% of these donations were of sufficient quality for resale in stores. The balance of about 90% of donated garments (through clothing bins) need to find an alternative end market, because they are not fit for in-store resale.
In response to these trends, second-hand shops and their associated charities are searching for innovative ways to adapt to such pressures. This report considers steps taken by Oxfam, the UK’s oldest charity retailer founded in 1947, to build on this legacy by promoting the reuse of materials within the textiles industry.
Those with their finger on fashion’s pulse won't have missed the headlines in recent months that put fashion brands under the spotlight for incinerating unsold stock. It is a complex problem, which often stems from the desire to keep brand names exclusive. While exact data on pre-consumer waste is largely unavailable (or that which is available, is questionable) it seems that the problem is widespread, and incineration or mutilation is unfortunately also a common practice. Undoubtedly proactive solutions are necessary, which design out any risk of overproduction. However, more immediately, we must find ways to halt this wasteful destruction of perfectly good product.
With overproduction an unnecessary, but nonetheless persistent evil, Oxfam Ireland has taken a radical approach in responding to the problem. For the past one and a half years, they have been running a pilot scheme , selling unsold stock in the form of jewellery and accessories. That stock has been provided by German company Beeline (a long established partner of Oxfam Ireland), which has a jewellery brand, Six. Oxfam Ireland has joined forces with Six, to create the high street store: Six4Good.
Under the partnership, Oxfam sells unsold stock, defects and samples in Six4Good stores in Ireland. These are donated entirely free of charge by the Beeline company. Funds raised by the sale of these accessories help finance Oxfam’s vital international projects, in particular in the area of women's rights and gender equality. Volunteers, as well as the stores to sell the products in, are provided by Oxfam. While shopping, customers are updated on the work of the charity, and how their purchases contribute to that work.
Operating non-Oxfam branded stores represents a new direction not only for Oxfam Ireland but for charity retailing in general and the pilot is proving a resounding success. Of a total 7 million euros income from Oxfam Ireland’s 50 stores in the last year, 1.3 million was provided by Beeline donations. Oxfam Ireland currently operate four Six4Good stand-alone stores and one concession store.
Oxfam are now collaborating with a number of retailers with a view to finding an ethical means of dealing with excess stock. While encouraging, this widespread interest raises issues also. Oxfam is only too aware of its own stance regarding sustainability and possible contradictions working with brands it has previously taken a public stance against. Providing a convenient and clever solution should not deter brands from taking a critical look at their overproduction. As a result Oxfam Ireland is careful to collaborate only with retailers who see fashion reuse as part of a broader culture of waste reduction, supply chain sustainability and accountability.
That’s why Beeline, who apply a strict code of conduct throughout their entire production chain and achieved carbon neutrality in 2017, were a suitable partner for Oxfam Ireland.
Recognising this, Harald Steber, Sustainability Manager at Beeline Group, informed us:
“Yet fashion is a 'tricky business' and some goods - however carefully selected and beautifully presented on time - cannot be sold. The cooperation with Oxfam [Ireland] gives us the opportunity to provide these goods to interested customers which we were not able to sell before and support this great organisation at the same time.”
Does this represent a new business model for charity shops? By creating an outlet to sell brands' unsold stock Oxfam is able to generate another revenue stream while decreasing waste in the industry; necessary in a time when the quality of post-consumer textiles, and related profit margins are decreasing in the second-hand clothing industry and the environmental pressures of the industry continue to grow.
As the quality of post-consumer decreases, the portion of non-rewearable clothes grows, requiring solutions to find value in these textiles that have reached the end of their life. This has led some to recognise that the future of apparel industry may lie in "closing the clothing loop"; figuring out a way to fully recycle clothes into fibers that can be re-spun and made into new garments.
While Oxfam Ireland plays an important role in extending the life cycle of clothes by reselling pre and post-consumer goods, they are waiting for recycling technologies that will complement their business in their ability to valorise non-rewearable clothing. With ambitions for collaborations with recyclers in the future, post-consumer recycling will reduce Oxfam Ireland’s reliance on exporting collected clothes and maintain the value of fiber materials already in circulation.
Oxfam Ireland is involved in many projects that make closing the material loop an approaching reality, there are also several steps you can take as an individual to help charities like Oxfam, and promote more efficient recycling processes:
Couldn't make it to Beyond Next, the Circularity Festival, last month? We compiled all key insights and highlights from the event so you don't miss out!
Circle Economy and the Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI) welcomed a host of circularity frontrunners to Amsterdam on February 7th and 9th for Beyond Next, the circularity festival. Beyond Next brought together a great mix of industry professionals and the next generation of young talent for two days of speeches, panel discussions and workshops. We are especially grateful to our four partners, ABN AMRO, HEMA, the City of Amsterdam, and Nationale Postcode Loterij for making the festival a big success! Check out key facts and figures about the festival here!
The festival also hosted four challenges on themes of urgent importance and global relevance. Within the course of two days, multidisciplinary groups of experts and ambitious students knuckled down and combined their brainpower in an intense circular economy hackathon to develop 12 new solutions to key circularity challenges. The four solutions that won over the jury were presented on stage at the festival and are due to be implemented by challenge partners ABN AMRO, AMFI, HEMA and the City of Amsterdam over the next year. From renting your children's toys to closing the loop on organic waste for Amsterdam's food businesses, these ideas have tremendous potential to advance to the circular economy. Click through to learn more about all twelve solutions here!
At Beyond Next, more than 40 speakers joined our keynote sessions and panel discussions - a sequence of inspiring, motivational, and at times jaw-dropping speeches on themes related to the circular economy and sustainability. Our plenary session kicked off with a keynote speech from Kate Raworth, self-described ‘renegade economist’ and bestselling author of Doughnut Economics. She made a passionate advocate for the circular economy, urging a cognitive shift from the 20th-century extractive mindset to a new 21st-century generative mindset. Learn more about what it takes to shift to such a mindset here!
When it comes to building circular business models, the key actors in companies and capital markets often experience what has been described as a split heart. What is a viable pace of change? Is there a certain ‘trade-off’ between divergent values? Is it possible to reconcile maximum (often short-term) financial returns and doing the right thing? Frans van Houten, CEO of Philips; Carola Wijdoogen, Corporate Sustainability Officer of Dutch rail operator NS; and Martin Stuchtey the founder of consulting firm Systemiq, joined us on stage to make the practical case for circular business models.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nmV_himZOI
Beyond Next 2019
Browse through the livestream here:
All about the Doughnut and Circularity in practice!
Megatrends and solutions
Business opportunities in Circularity
The Circular Economy mindset and Fashion beyond growth
The way forward: How to move ahead & beyond
Interested in participating in the next edition of Beyond Next? Contact us!
Watch this space for more key learnings from the festival! Please, stay in the loop!
With our partners ABN AMRO, AMFI, HEMA and the City of Amsterdam, the festival jointly hosted four challenges on themes of urgent importance: promoting access over ownership, the role of fashion education, single-use plastics, and organic waste recovery.
In preparation for the event, from December 19 to January 21, we crowdsourced more than 400 ideas and insights from a global community of students, citizens, entrepreneurs, and countless other industry professionals. The Circle Economy team identified and clustered all submissions into key areas of opportunity that served to inspire and support the development of new solutions at the Beyond Next challenge workshops.
Below are the four solutions that were presented on stage at the festival:
This is the story of why Balloons Blow and Straws Suck. 3/4 of three to twelve year old kids in the Netherlands throw a birthday party every year. Because most of the party necessities out there today are made of single-use plastic, these parties produce an estimated one million kilos of plastic waste. The production of this amount of plastic alone creates the same CO2 emissions as a full Boeing 787 flying between Amsterdam and New York 25 times!
What if HEMA would provide us with the opportunity to rent a party? This would not only be good news for the environment, it would also be a great service. Imagine — you go to HEMA’s website, and you just order the party you like: a kid’s birthday party, a BBQ party, a HEMA wedding! Of course you can customise your party: you pick your kid’s favourite theme, such as “Princess”, “Badman” or “Ajax”, and you click on what you need, and on the amount you need: 6 banners, 25 cups, 15 plates, 10 dresses, 10 hats, 50 balloons. You can get it delivered, or you can pick it up yourself at a HEMA in your neighbourhood. At the end of the day you just put all the cutlery and party props back in a box, and you have it brought back to HEMA.
Check out the other solutions that were developed at Beyond Next for this challenge on Circle Lab >
On average, children have 70+ toys and parents spend over €6,000 on toys over the lifetime of their kids. Children demand different toys at different age levels, and the experience is that they outgrow their toys quickly. Next to this, many kids have a few favourite toys and the majority of their 70+ toys is never used. A real cost to the environment.
To save the environment, to unburden parents and free up space in the house and to shift mindsets as early as possible, Toybox provides a toys-as-a-service proposition where parents can subscribe to starting from €20 a month. Storage, logistics, cleaning, refurbishing/repair when needed is all taken care of by Toybox. Parents can decide themselves how long they would like to keep a certain toy. Both online and via pop-up location toy exchanging can take place. Sharing toys will teach children the circular mindset!
Check out the other solutions that were developed at Beyond Next for this challenge on Circle Lab >
For current and next generation fashion professionals (AMFI students, AMFI staff and AMFI alumni), who are lacking the latest knowledge on circularity and sustainability, and the skills to put that knowledge into practice, the Leadership Learning Circle is a training and re-training programme that builds leadership skills and expertise on circular innovation, via workshops, masterclasses, field trips and real life case studies.
Neither students, teachers nor present day fashion professionals are equipped to deal with the new fashion reality. We must all go back to school. Instead of siloed efforts to educate and re-educate, we should be conducting this future-proof training at once, with students, staff and fashion professionals around the same table. In addition to hard skills and content knowledge, we also recognised that leadership skills are critically needed to activate this new found expertise in a practical way and incite change within a project, classroom, or brand.
The LLC will combine the two. The LLC is an intensive 1-year programme in AMFI that jointly retrains a collective of students, educators and fashion industry professionals, therefore enabling life-long learning. The reality school concept remains core to the programme, as students and staff will be imbedded in the brands that are participating (1 day per week) and the fashion professionals will be embedded in AMFI (1 day per week). In addition, the group will ‘learn by doing’ through continual experiential field trips and masterclasses.
Check out the other solutions that were developed at Beyond Next for this challenge on Circle Lab >
70% of restaurants throw out 50% of their organic waste, 65% of food SMEs in Amsterdam don’t know how to close the loop, and, according the the AMEC, the number of small scale food associated producers are rapidly increasing.
To connect supply and demand, divert organic waste, and close the loop on organic waste for Amsterdam’s small independent food businesses by 2025, Afval Afhaal (“Waste Collection”) uses local street sweepers (an existing infrastructure in Amsterdam) to pick up organic waste from small scale food producers and SMEs and deliver it to producers who need it. An online database or marketplace enables registered businesses to list their resources and find raw materials for their own production, and incentive schemes with partnering organisations would encourage adoption.
Check out the other solutions that were developed at Beyond Next for this challenge on Circle Lab >
We are currently developing roadmaps for each of these solutions with our challenge partners and will keep you up to date on progress made over the next year through Circle Lab, but we encourage you to start your own project around one of these themes!
Keen to work on one of these ideas in your own city? Get in touch with us! >
The Limburg Energy Fund (“LEF”), a regional investment fund established by the Province of Limburg, is the first of its kind to join Circle Economy's membership community.
LEF has a mandate to support sustainability in or for Limburg. The fund has received €90 mln from the Province of Limburg and the European Investment Bank. It provides subordinated and senior debt, and equity financing, to projects that contribute to CO2 reduction, renewable energy, energy efficiency, resource efficiency, waste or asbestos reduction.
"We are very proud and happy to welcome LEF as our latest member. They lead by example, currently financing various circular projects. Their ambition, specific circular focus and experience will be of great value for the work we do within Circle Economy"
- Fieke de Haan, Lead Circle Finance Programme
With this mandate, LEF is the first regional investment fund with a specific circular focus, stimulating retention of value from residues of biological, technical and energy cycles and improving the efficient use or re-use of resources.
“The Limburg Energy Fund pledges to contribute to further growth of the circular economy. LEF has financed more than €20 mln in circular projects, mobilizing more than €100 mln in private sector funding. By joining other members of the Circle Economy community, we will share knowledge and hope to step up our financing of circular projects”
-- Philip Tan, Director Limburg Energy Fund
Four examples of circular projects financed by the Limburg Energy Fund
The 'Building Value' report launched today demonstrates the radical potential in the built environment to accelerate the circular economy. The industry should re-think how to calculate value in buildings and how to finance them.
This report identifies key reforms to current methods of valuation and financing to stimulate circular construction. An alternative pathway is mapped from a case study of the Fridtjof Nansenhof social housing project in Amsterdam, due for redevelopment in 2020.
The report is a collaboration between Circle Economy, Sustainable Finance Lab, ING, Allen & Overy, Eigen Haard, The Royal Netherlands Institute of Chartered Accountants (NBA), Alfa Accountants and Advisors, Madaster, Arcadis, Arup, and DOOR architecten, co-funded by Nederland Circulair! The participants formed a Community of Practice (CoP), to develop relevant, transferable tools to guide circular construction.
Rethinking Construction: one building, six layers
The report argues that each building should be conceived as six individual layers, each with their own lifespan. Applying circular principles, strategies can be developed to maintain the value of each layer.
The EPM hierarchy
Value can be maintained within each of the six layers by prioritizing reuse in this order: elements, products, materials (EPM). New business models, such as Product-as-a-Service, enable effective reuse of EPMs.
Market for reusable elements
Prioritizing reuse will require a developed market for building elements. Technology has enabled actors within the built environment to increasingly collect, store and exchange data. Reliable governance of EPM data is essential to respect privacy, security and transparency.
The business case
Accurate valuation of individual layers and EPMs is key. The Community of Practice conducted a scenario building exercise to compare the long term (financial) performance of circular features for two building layers. The business case is shown to be highly dependent on assumptions for factors including depreciation, discount rates, lifespan and market development.
Valuing circular construction
Distinguishing between building layers, when realizing the value on the balance sheet, is necessary to explicitly show the value of layers and EPMs as part of the overall value. The traditional emphasis on location value as part of the total value has eclipsed the importance of building layers and EPMs. These factors should be reported separately on the balance sheet to guide investment decisions.
"Separating location and building elements on the balance sheet should result in a different way of valuing and financing buildings when the developing market for repurposed building elements is more established.”
Jan van der Doelen, Sector Banker Building & Construction, Real Estate at IN
Bringing future value into present financing
Financiers play a crucial role in identifying and mitigating risks in the transition to a circular economy. Circular business models capture value over a longer time horizon, reflected in higher future values. Investment decisions should assess this future value: "The business case of a circular construction project is based on the ambition to reduce our demand for natural resources. If a small extra investment results in increased flexibility of the building in the long-term, then it is a smart investment. This long-term investment vision could be further incentivised if financiers make circular construction an investment criterium.” says Dries Wijte, Manager Back Office Finance at Eigen Haard.
Next steps
On the 16th of January the Community of Practise hosted an event, inviting industry professionals to further the conversation and challenge the report findings with the market. Several of the CoP partners have already committed to continue to build on the knowledge and support the implementation of a circular built environment.
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