Primark’s Head of Circularity Nick Lambert and the Circular Textiles Foundation’s Director Tim Cross have spoken exclusively to Circular Online about their new advanced training programme on circular design principles.
In an exclusive interview with Circular Online, Primark’s Head of Circularity Nick Lambert said the training will “bridge the gaps” in their teams’ in-house knowledge.
“Although we’ve set out an ambition to make more recyclable, more durable clothing using more recycled and more sustainably sourced materials, we know that we don’t necessarily have all of that knowledge today,” he said.
“What the Circular Textiles Foundation (CTF) can give us, particularly when it comes to recyclability, is a specialist and unique knowledge. They exist in a really unique space between fashion design and brands and recyclers, which was perfect for us.
“Recyclability is quite poorly defined at industry level. If you ask different recyclers, you’ll get a different answer to what recyclability is. What Tim and the team at CTF can do is find really practical, tangible, pragmatic, steps towards bridging that gap.”
The CTF will deliver the training to Primark’s Design and Product teams at the retailer’s offices in Dublin.
Nick said that the training will expand on the broad concept of circularity and tie specifically into different types of clothing in pragmatic ways.
Tim Cross, Founder and Director of the Circular Textiles Foundation, also spoke to Circular Online to explain that the main focus of the training is to teach the teams how to make clothing more recyclable.
“Plastic bottles are now being recycled into clothing, producers may be using organic cotton or recycled cotton too, but, ultimately, if you can’t then recycle that item and use its resources again then you’re just wasting good products.
“Everything that we’ve been trying to put across to the Primark team is about that circularity; about closing the loop.
“It’s about trying to make sure that everything that we do in the design of the garment enables it to be recycled at the end of its life.”
What are the goals of the training programme?
“We launched the Primark Care Strategy three years ago, which included very specific public goals around making our clothing more durable, more recyclable and using more sustainably sourced materials,” Nick told Circular Online.
“We’re in different stages against those different targets and we recognise that. We need that support from outside to help push us in the right direction.
“The goal I hope to achieve from this partnership is to start to push towards more of our clothing being more recyclable by design, and, again, that’s where Tim and the team will come into play by getting us to think differently and instigate a mindset shift.”
When we asked Tim what the main barriers are that prevent textile companies from embedding circular economy principles, he explained that many designers simply don’t know enough about them.
“Circular design is not something that many people working today will have been taught because it involves new technology and is a new way of thinking, but it is going to be embedded in the way that all clothing is made going forward,” he said.
Tim pointed out that extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations mean producers will soon have to make their garments circular to avoid increased costs.
He explained that if producers don’t change the way they manufacture clothing, then they’re going to find it very difficult to continue trading.
How does Primark define ‘Circular by Design’?
Nick said that Primark’s definition of ‘circular by design’ has evolved a lot over the past few years.
“In really simple terms, what it means is that we are looking to design and create clothing with the future in mind.
“We aim to manufacture an item of clothing using more sustainable or more recycled materials. Also, we like the clothing we produce to be durable to keep it in use for as long as possible, because, ultimately, the most sustainable item of clothing is one that you already own.
“Finally, we would like to move towards a more circular system where an item of clothing can be recycled at the end of its life.
“Those are the three pillars of circular design for us: sustainable recycled materials, durability, and recyclability.”
This philosophy forms the foundation of Primark’s current approach. Nick said the latest training programme will build on this framework and delve into the design details of specific textile items.
“We’ve got a pretty well-developed framework and basic concepts of how we define recyclability and durability,” Nick said. “The training will help us to establish how these ideas are applied to a pair of jeans compared to a pair of socks.”
“Jeans are currently relatively simple to move towards a mono-material composition, like 100% cotton, if you’re not trying to design a pair with a stretch in it, so less form-fitting designs are simpler compared to skinny jeans.
We want to examine the technical components of an item of clothing that might make it easier or more difficult to recycle or be more durable.
“Whereas fluffier knitwear designs, which have been a big trend over the last few years, are often achieved with multiple blends of fibres with different fibre compositions, which is very uncircular, very unrecyclable.
“We might not be able to make positive changes overnight but how do we start to encourage buyers and designers to question every single fibre that might be in a blend to achieve that look? And that might be a journey.
“It’s about starting to get people to think differently about what they might have just accepted as the norm; to start challenging things like fabric compositions or garment construction.
“We want to examine the technical components of an item of clothing that might make it easier or more difficult to recycle or be more durable.
“It’s those kinds of specific details that perhaps we haven’t looked at in forensic detail before. This is what Tim and his team are really good at focusing on. Once we have acquired this knowledge, the next step is to translate this into specific guidelines.”
Reducing over consumption
Evolving from a more linear design model to a circular one is a positive step forward for producers like Primark.
However, the elephant in the room is over consumption. Global fibre production per person has increased from 8.3 kilograms in 1975 to 14.6 kilograms per person in 2022.
“I’m firmly in the camp that we need to reduce consumption,” Tim said. “I would much rather we were making garments that are designed to last.
“To make a garment last, you have to not only imbue both the durability into the garment construction and the garment fabric, but also in the emotional durability of that garment, the ability of it to continue to be desired to be worn into its 15th year.”
Tim emphasised that maximising an item of clothing’s emotional durability is crucial to ensure it stays in use for longer.
“I think you achieve that through great design and great materials, and making products out of recycled materials or making it recyclable,” Tim said. “For most people, this will make them have a greater affinity to the garment and feel that it is something that they want to look after.
“If you purchase a garment that suits your style, then you will look after it and wear it for the full extent of its life. You have that sense that this defines who I am, and I like to represent myself through this clothing, and it works well for me.”
Tim argued that embedding repairability into a garment is another way to imbue it with emotional durability.
“People are able to personalise a garment through repair and it begins to take on their personality through that repair,” Tim said.
If you purchase a garment that suits your style, then you will look after it and wear it for the full extent of its life.
“You might transition a garment from being one style to another style through that repair, and that then enables the consumer to make a garment part of their personality and their style. We build all of those things into what we’re trying to do.”
This concept of emotional durability is something Nick echoed.
“What I’ve often found in the broader conversations we have as an industry, is there’s a lot of focus, rightly so, on finding technical solutions to kind of technical problems,” Nick explained.
“Fashion is a creative expression of oneself. It is also about having fun. And I think sometimes that’s the element that can be forgotten.
“We want our customers to embrace the idea of repairing and even customising their clothes – which is why we run our free Love it for Longer workshops in store.
“These are short educational sessions that we offer to customers to show them really practically how easy it can be to reattach a button that’s fallen off, mend a broken seam or add embroidery or other personalisations – all using a needle and thread.
“It’s these basic skills that help people to make an item of clothing their own that they will keep for years and perhaps even pass down to the next generation.”
How enthusiastic are designers about circularity?
Tim told us that the designers taking part in CTF’s training programmes are incredibly enthusiastic about sustainability and the circular economy.
“I think if you speak to a designer as an individual rather than an employee, they care passionately about the way they make clothing and what is involved and its future circularity.
“We’ve had very, very, very few people push back and say, I don’t want to do this; this is not important to me. Everybody we speak to says it’s important to them and they want the training.”
However, Tim stressed that an individual employee’s enthusiasm isn’t enough to move the needle on circularity. They have deadlines and targets that may discourage them from thinking about a garment’s end-of-life during the design stage.
“While they might personally really care about it, it has to be corporately embedded, and it has to be one of the key indicators that say you must do this,” Tim said.
“For example, we want to see at least 30% of your portfolio is designed to be recycled. If not, then that will be a markdown against you in your review.
“Getting this mindset embedded in a business’s culture makes it easier for designers to do the right thing. That comes from the top. It has to be something that the company believes in. And I think Nick and his team are very focused on making that happen.”
Making it easy for customers to be sustainable
“Our ambition is to make more sustainable clothing choices available to all, and that garments designed with the end in mind are as accessible as possible,” Nick said.
“We’re not trying to necessarily talk to people in super scientific, technical terms, because it’s not necessarily a concept that people understand directly or clearly, it’s how we translate it to a customer.
“What does it mean for them? How do we start to encourage customers to make the right choice? What are the behaviours we want to encourage after that?
“We want to make it as easy and accessible as possible for people to reuse and recycle their clothing.
“We have a textile takeback programme in stores in the UK, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, and the goal is to roll it out to all of our stores across Europe and the US by the end of 2025.
“There is a lot more to be done, but we’re really committed to making those recycling points as accessible as possible.”
Nick explained that when he spoke about a mindset shift, this was important for consumers, not only producers.
To do this, he said people need to be made aware of the different choices they have when dealing with a product at the end of its life and how each choice has a different outcome.
“Circular design is the foundation but then there are customer intervention points that we need to start getting more involved with to make sure people understand how they can behave and do things to support that circular economy.”
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