A number of fashion industry leaders as well as materials suppliers have joined a new Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) initiative, ‘Make Fashion Circular'.
Burberry Group plc; Gap Inc.; H&M; HSBC; NIKE, Inc.; and Stella McCartney were announced as core partners of the initiative, which will look to develop solutions for sustainability issues in the fashion industry.
The project will look into phasing out harmful materials and keeping clothes in use, with possibility to unlock a €560bn economic opportunity.
As part of the project, the core partners will work with the EMF to radically redesign the fashion industry.
Guidelines of work are based around the EMF 2017 report ‘A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion's future'.
Key principles involve developing business models that keep clothes in use; materials that are renewable and safe as well as solutions that turn used clothes into new clothes.
DuPont Biomaterials, Fung Group, Hallotex, I:Collect, Inditex, Kering, Lenzing Group, London Waste and Recycling Board, Nanushka, Primark, RadiciGroup, Solvay, Texaid, Tintex Textiles, VF Corporation, W.L. Gore and Associates have also signed as participants.
London-based EMF is a circular economy charity, targeting suitability issues in key industries. The initiative's biggest project revolves around “new plastics economy” which aims to reduce marine litter and plastic pollution by upcycling used plastics and encouraging design for recycling.