How to Eliminate Waste in the Clothing and Food Sectors

04 August 2020 | Issue 18 | Tiger Hill Capital

Interview with Paul Foulkes-Arellano, Founder of Circuthon Consulting

Welcome to this week’s edition of Powering Prosperity Weekly.

This weekly newsletter looks at issues relating to the Global Economic Transition that will play out over the coming 20-30 years (see my April 13 introductory article on LinkedIn for additional context).

In last week’s newsletter we defined the concept of the circular economy. We interviewed Christian van Maaren, whose company Excess Materials Exchange helps companies with excess industrial materials find new uses for them rather than them going to waste.

This week, we continue the Circular Economy theme but turn our attention to two highly wasteful sectors, clothing and food. We are joined by Paul Foulkes-Arellano, Founder of Circuthon Consulting.

Before we introduce Paul’s background, let’s consider some facts:

Clothing

• Driven by fast fashion, clothing production has more than doubled since 2000 (see chart) but each item is used a third less than it was before. 
• Four-fifths of clothes go into waste disposal streams, with 70% of that number going to landfill. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, emissions from textiles production totaled 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2015, more than those of all international flights and maritime shipping combined.

Image: Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Food

• Over one-quarter of the world’s agricultural land is used annually to produce food that is lost or wasted.
• Food waste causes 3.3 billion tonnes CO2 equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) each year—almost 10% of total annual GHG emissions.

Listen to my full conversation with Paul Foulkes-Arellano on Spotify or the Powering Prosperity podcast page.

Consumers are increasingly concerned about the impact of waste in these sectors. Significant numbers of consumers now say they’re trying to keep clothes for longer because it is better for the environment. Furthermore, when UK consumers were asked to select up to five food issues that most concern them, the second highest concern after price was food waste, with 40% of respondents citing this as a concern—up from a third in 2012.

In theory, these trends should make clothing and food prime industries for the circular economy. Yet few companies are becoming more circular in these sectors. Fresh thinking is needed about how to design industrial models so that they produce less waste and also make more profit.

Paul will help us understand the latest thinking on the circular economy in these industries. He began his career in industrial packaging design, and then worked in footwear for a number of years making brands like Airwalk and Dr. Martens. In 2017 he became a packaging design adviser at campaign group A Plastic Planet and soon after founded the Sustainable Design Alliance. He now advises businesses on circular economy and sustainability projects via his company Circuthon Consulting.

Paul explains concepts such a ‘design for disassembly’ which enables clothes to be rapidly taken apart so that its components can be reused or recycled. We also discuss the potential for so-called ‘general-purpose technologies’ which would make the transition the circular economy much faster and easier, just as the computer chip did for the digital economy, for example. Paul introduces us to seemingly fantastical concepts which may be with us sooner than we expect, such as packaging made from mushroom fibres, lab-grown cotton, and making clothes in your kitchen.

If you would like to find out more about Paul’s work, you can visit Circuthon Consulting’s website, or find him on LinkedIn.