No longer destroying unsold clothes will have perverse effects

• It is forbidden to destroy non-food products not sold since January 1, 2022, according to our partner The Conversation.

• But if the arrival of this law is beneficial in the fight against waste, it cannot overshadow the work of reflection on the reduction of unsold items and management practices in this sector.

• This analysis was conducted by Isabelle Robert, lecturer in management sciences and co-founder of the “Tex & Care” circular fashion chair;

  Maud Herbert, university professor and co-founder of “Tex & Care”;

  Anthony Jaugeard, coordinator of "Tex & Care" (all three at the University of Lille).

Since January 1, 2022, the anti-waste law for a circular economy requires that unsold non-food products can no longer be destroyed.

Clothing and footwear thus fall within the scope of this law.

Laceration or incineration practices had indeed been denounced by associations (Emmaus, Zero Waste etc).

This progress therefore puts an end to these senseless practices in the light of the climate emergency.

However, it is not without impact on the fashion, textile and clothing sector.

And could have perverse effects on the long-term objective, namely to reduce production at source.

​Unsold, "dormant stocks"

By unsold, we designate a production that could not be the subject of a sale.

In the textile industry, it is a classic inventory management variable.

The manufacture of clothing or purchases are guided by the logic of repetition in volume from one year to the next, often leading to an inflation of the number of pieces for sale.

Promotions and sales have always corresponded to the best technique for disposing of surpluses for the current season.

Ultimately, all the remaining products, the damaged ones and those returned by customers, become what is called unsold downstream.

Fabrics with defects, or the remnants of a volume order, constitute upstream unsold items from producers and clutter up warehouses.

All bear the sweet name of “dormant stocks” in French, but “dead stocks” in English.

In fact, they represent an accounting cost for companies.

Until now, some brands agreed to let them go to secondary networks (discounts, factory sales, private sales), others refused this solution and chose to destroy them.

Since January, the last option is no longer legally possible.

The challenges of “circular” fashion

This new regulation aims to optimize inventory management and encourage reflection on reuse.

In fact, producers and distributors are now thinking about reusing and recycling their unsold textiles in a logic of circular economy.

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The circular economy can be defined as "an economic system of exchange and production which, at all stages of the life cycle of products (goods and services), aims to increase the efficiency of the use of resources and to reduce the impact on the environment while developing the well-being of individuals”.

In order to be operational, this notion often refers to the actions listed by different verbs in “R”.

The best known to the general public are the 3 “Rs” – reduce, reuse and recycle – but the scientific literature distinguishes up to 9 of them. These are not equivalent in terms of environmental impact and a hierarchy is essential between the different processes to which they correspond.

Following this logic, the circular economy must be understood as a process aimed firstly at extending the initial lifespan of the product by seeking to preserve its intrinsic value at the highest possible level of utility, and, secondly, increase the circularity of materials and components.

​Upcycling diverted from its primary purpose

By imposing management of unsold items, new textile surpluses upstream and downstream pass directly to the status of waste without experiencing a first life in a product.

Making their recovery compulsory pushes companies to favor actions of reuse and to create outlets for reselling them.

These “new” sources are fueling, but also disrupting, circular business models based on reused products, as our ongoing research shows.

It brings to light the profound evolution of two historical models of circular fashion: upcycling and second hand.

Among the different age categories, it is above all teenagers (13-18 years old) who are the biggest second-hand consumers.

https://t.co/7LiTHKR4Qz

— The Conversation France (@FR_Conversation) June 15, 2021

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Upcycling consists of collecting second-hand clothes and textiles to modify them and give them added value (aesthetics and use).

It corresponds to a logic of extending the initial lifespan of a used product and relaunching its circularity.

Currently, the upcycling market is rapidly refocusing on production from new “dormant” fabrics – end of rolls, fabric scraps from manufacturers, unsold clothes from retailers, etc.

Thus, the key factors for the success of upcycling are now primarily based on the search for suppliers of unsold fabrics and on the loyalty-capture of this sourcing network.

Sourcing facilitated by the rise of platforms such as

of the

group where players bid on the price of available materials.

This focus on the reuse of unsold items calls into question one of the key principles of the circular economy: maximizing the number of consecutive cycles and the duration of each cycle embodied by the following sequential: first use of the product, extension of the duration life through repair and second hand, upcycling and recycling.

By categorizing a new product as waste to be revalorized, the players maintain, or even speculate, on unsold items (while they could adjust their management and reduce them).

​Second hand with new?

Second-hand business models are also affected by the arrival of surplus products.

Indeed, unsold textiles donated or sold to charitable structures of the social and solidarity economy (ESS), such as

or

, raise many questions.

The development of a second-hand textile market "held" by consumers, accelerated by the creation of sales platforms such as

or

, has already diverted part of the textile flows that consumers historically gave to the SSE.

This first phenomenon leads to an observed decline in the quality of donations from individuals to these structures.

Fashion industry: the (very) limited effects of textile recycling https://t.co/Gp4iGPHzKb pic.twitter.com/dzyPxlCl8F

– The Conversation France (@FR_Conversation) September 3, 2020

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At the same time, the law on unsold items risks accelerating the phenomenon, already at work, of donations of unsold items to SSE structures.

The evolution of their model from the sale of second-hand clothes to an increase in the sale of new unsold products (which in fact cannot be considered second-hand) results in an abundance of new

clothes , which are difficult to sell. .

​Objective, reduce unsold stock

If these unsold items were not purchased by consumers, why would they be in these networks?

A real question arises on the viability of the economic models of these structures which have strong social and societal objectives.

The arrival of this law is beneficial in the fight against waste, but it cannot overshadow the work of reflection on the reduction of unsold items and management practices in this sector.

Like all good waste, the most virtuous unsold is that which is not produced.

Our “CIRCULAR ECONOMY” dossier

The rise of the fight against upstream clothing waste through fashion 4.0, production on demand, to order, co-creation with consumers, combined with circular economic models that process waste that is already used and not “new waste”, give hope for a trend that will reduce unsold items throughout the value chain.

Society

The (very) limited effects of textile recycling by the fashion industry

Planet

Circular economy: Why we should be wary of overly “obvious” recycling solutions

This analysis was written by Isabelle Robert, lecturer in Management Sciences and co-founder of the “Tex&Care” circular fashion chair;

Maud Herbert, university professor and co-founder of “Tex&Care”;

Anthony Jaugeard, coordinator of “Tex&Care” (all three at the University of Lille).

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​Declaration

• Planet

• Video

• The Conversation

• Waste

• Recycling

• circular economy