Circular Fashion: Design to Recovery

Syllabus

Each module has three lessons, an applied exercise on your own product or factory data, and a quiz with explained answers.

1. 1. Circular business models

   Resale, rental, repair, take-back and long-life retail each change what the product must survive. This module decides the model before a single material is chosen, because the model sets the specification.

   • What circularity actually asks of a product

     Separate real circular models from recycled-content marketing.

     Exercise: Classify three of your current styles against five circular models.

   • Resale, rental and repair economics

     Estimate how many use cycles a model needs to pay back.

     Exercise: Build a simple cycle-count breakeven for one style.

   • Take-back and extended producer responsibility

     Describe who owns the garment, and the cost, at end of first life.

     Exercise: Map the return path for one style, from customer to sorter.

   Module quiz: Matching a model to product type and volume, and the cost and ownership consequences of each.

2. 2. Material selection for recovery

   Fibre blends, finishes and trims decide whether a garment can be recycled at all. This module works through recoverability as a specification input, not an afterthought.

   • Fibre choices and their recovery routes

     State the realistic recovery route for each fibre you use.

     Exercise: List every fibre in your range and its route.

   • Blends, coatings and elastane

     Identify which combinations rule out recycling in practice.

     Exercise: Flag the blocked styles in your own bill of materials.

   • Trims, threads and labels

     Specify trims that separate cleanly or share the base polymer.

     Exercise: Rewrite one trim specification for disassembly.

   Module quiz: Blend and finish choices that block mechanical or chemical recycling.

3. 3. Design for longevity and disassembly

   Longer use beats any recycling gain. This module covers construction, seam and closure choices that survive wear and wash, and let a repairer or recycler take the garment apart.

   • Wear and wash failure modes

     Predict where your garments fail first, and why.

     Exercise: Review returns or wear trials for one style and name the top failure.

   • Seam, stitch and closure decisions

     Choose constructions that hold up and can still be opened.

     Exercise: Reissue one seam specification for repairability.

   • Durability targets you can test

     Set measurable durability requirements instead of adjectives.

     Exercise: Write three testable durability lines for one style.

   Module quiz: Construction and testing choices that extend usable life.

4. 4. Low-waste production

   Circularity on the factory floor is mostly cutting-room and process discipline. This module turns marker utilisation, remnant handling and rework into tracked numbers.

   • Marker utilisation as a circularity metric

     Read utilisation reports and see where fabric is really lost.

     Exercise: Pull utilisation for one order and find the biggest loss.

   • Remnants, end bits and offcuts

     Route each waste stream to a named destination.

     Exercise: Draw the actual destination of every cutting-room stream.

   • Rework, seconds and downgrades

     Count rework as material loss, not just a quality cost.

     Exercise: Convert one month of rework into fabric and hours lost.

   Module quiz: Cutting-room utilisation, remnant routing and rework as circularity measures.

5. 5. Repair, resale and service life

   A second life needs spare parts, grading rules and a service that can be staffed. This module builds the operational side of keeping garments in use.

   • Repairability in the specification

     Specify spare parts, thread and trim availability up front.

     Exercise: Write a spare-part list for one style.

   • Grading and pricing returned stock

     Apply consistent grading so resale value is predictable.

     Exercise: Draft a four-grade scale for your product type.

   • Running a repair service

     Size the labour, skills and turnaround a repair route needs.

     Exercise: Estimate repair minutes and cost for one common failure.

   Module quiz: Repair capability, grading rules and spare-part planning.

6. 6. Recovery and traceability

   The last module closes the loop: sorting, mechanical and chemical routes, and the records that let you say where material went without overclaiming.

   • Sorting and the reality of feedstock quality

     Explain why sorted feedstock, not collection volume, limits recycling.

     Exercise: Describe the sorting step your returned product would face.

   • Mechanical and chemical recovery routes

     Match your materials to a route that actually accepts them.

     Exercise: Name a real route and its input requirements for one material.

   • Traceability and claims that survive audit

     Record chain of custody so each claim has a document behind it.

     Exercise: Build the evidence list for one circular claim you make today.

   Module quiz: Recovery routes, chain-of-custody records and defensible claims.

Final assessment. A circular product brief: one garment, its business model, bill of materials, durability and waste targets, repair route, recovery route and the evidence behind each claim.