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Starter Kit collection

Business case

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Reduced use and withdrawal of water and rate of recycling and reuse of water

Save Water (SDG6)

Producing textile and leather products and processing them into apparel and accessories

Fashion and Textiles

Use digital, online platforms and technologies that provide insights to track and optimise resource use, strengthen connections between supply chain actors, and enable the implementation of circular models



Incorporate digital technology

Employ technologies to gather and analyse data to provide insights on resource use

Data and insights

Connecting products and services into the internet of things to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Internet enabled, connected operations

Other

Impacts

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Industries

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The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

Urban Opportunities

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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      We are over-consuming fashion and that’s a problem. The Internet of Clothes  addresses the problem via a connected wardrobe. Garments remind their user to be worn each day depending on the weather and frequency of wear. If they’re ignored the clothes automatically ask a charity to collect them. Ultimately we want to use the wardrobe to change our relationship with our clothes and create a more sustainable world.  
    Whilst many of us love our fashion, we have a problem. Developed countries are over-consuming clothing. Back in the 1930s, for example a typical American owned 9 outfits. Today, that number is 64. It’s not just the US, globally we buy four times the number of clothes that we did in the 1990s. Yet it is estimated that we wear just 20% of our wardrobe items regularly. It creates an impact on both the environment and exploitation of garment workers… read more

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    We can address the problem of over-consumption of clothing quite simply. We need to own fewer, yet ethically produced clothes that we wear more often. So what if we could make the clothes aware of their usage? We can even add a personality that asks, or pleads to be worn. And if they’re ignored, they will pass themselves on to a charity for recycling. We hope this engaging concept will create a debate and ultimately our aim is to use technology to change our relationship with clothing …  (more…)  
    The concept is to create a simple, frictionless experience. The user doesn’t need to manually log the clothes in or out of their wardrobe each day – if it takes too much effort, people just won’t do it. Our solution is to use RFID technology. It is a cheap, passive (no batteries required), washable tag that can be added to any garment. An RFID reader is put on a wardrobe or a room door, so the system can register when clothes have been taken from the closet. Users will initially categorise clothing by how often they will wear it, the season or the weather (such as rainwear). At a time set by the user each day, clothes will send a reminder message asking to be worn. If clothes are ignored a few times, they will contact our partner charity who will send a recycling envelope with a request from the garment to be returned … read more

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 Birmingham City University


Academics at Birmingham City University are working on a connected wardrobe that addresses the problem of unworn clothes by reminding you to wear them – or to give them away to charity. 
The initiative will create an Internet of Clothes that sees garments tagged using washable contactless technology, known as radio-frequency identification (RFID). Every day clothing will tweet and message users asking to be worn depending on the weather and frequency of wear. If these notifications are ignored, the garments will get in touch with a clothing charity and ask to be recycled, with an organisation automatically sending out a mailing envelope for return. 
The project aims to challenge people’s relationship with fashion and clothing usage – as a society, we own four times as many clothes as we did 20 years ago, but regularly only wear about 20 per cent of them. 
Mark Brill, Senior Lecturer in Future Media at Birmingham City University, is behind the project. 
He explained: 
“The connected wardrobe is a practical, engaging concept to encourage people to think about their clothing consumption. Ultimately, I hope it will encourage more ethical fashion consumption." 


Perhaps we can even move away from the idea of ‘ownership’ of clothing, to simply using them as long as we need them. When we’ve worn them enough, the items will pass themselves on to their next keeper to wear.


The average American buys 64 items of clothing a year and UK shoppers buy 2.15 million tonnes of clothing and shoes annually, yet UK citizens have an estimated £30 billion worth of unused clothing sitting in their closets. A century ago, people on average spent more than half their money on food and clothes, today this is less than a fifth. 
Overconsumption of clothing is a problem for both the environment and exploitation of those who produce them. Clothing production is highly damaging to the environment, from the petrochemicals used in synthetics to cotton growing, which uses more pesticides than any other crop. Bleaching, dyeing and finishing adds further pollutants to the environment and use considerable energy resources. 
Figures show that clothing manufacturing is among the most exploitative industries in the world, with workers some of the lowest paid and 85 per cent of them are women. The collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, killing over 1,100 people in 2013 highlighted these often appalling work conditions. 
The project has been shortlisted among 12 other projects for a Network for Innovations in Culture and Creativity in Europe (N.I.C.E) Award, which is organised by the european centre for creative economy (ecce). €20,000 will be distributed among four winners of the N.I.C.E. Award, which will be announced in Essen, Germany on Thursday 25 August. 
If successful, Birmingham City University academics hope to use the prize money to develop their working prototype into a network of many open source wardrobes – or an Internet of Clothes. Garments will compare and share their usage to others in the network with their own story about where, when and who wore them, as well as being able to offer individual items up to someone else. 
Future innovations for the technology could also see the creations of a ‘style matcher’, which will encourage greater usage of clothing by making wardrobe combinations easier to find. 
Furthermore, the academics involved would like to see garments tagged at the point of retail, meaning clothing labels could also let buyers know details such as the exact origin of the item, who made it and how much the worker was paid for it. 
Mark Brill added: 
“As well as ensuring unused clothes go to charity, the Internet of Clothes could also automate the options for selling our own clothes, meaning unloved items are automatically posted to eBay, ASOS Marketplace or Depop, for example. 
“Think of the surprise when an owner suddenly receives bids for items they didn’t know were in their wardrobe!” 
The project has been made possible by Maker Monday, an open innovation project from Birmingham City University that brings artists and technologists together to create new concepts. Mark Brill will be leading a team from Maker Monday to deliver the Internet of Clothes. 
Internet of clothes infographic.

Birmingham

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The Internet of Clothes 

Birmingham City University 

<p>Academics at Birmingham City University are developing a 'connected wardrobe' in which forgotten items will text owners to remind them that they are gathering dust. The researchers say they want to create an 'Internet of Clothes' that sees garments tagged using washable contactless technology, known as radio-frequency identification (RFID). If ignored for long time, the clothes will automatically contact charity shops asking to be recycled or offer themselves for auction on eBay. The connected wardrobe is a practical, engaging concept to encourage people to think about their clothing consumption.</p>

Interconnected wardrobe that sells your clothes if you don't wear them

The Internet of Clothes aims to use RFID technology in a cheap, washable tag
that can be added to any garment. By adding a RFID reader on wardrobe or a
room door, users can track their usage. If clothes aren't worn for long
periods of time, they will contact a partner charity to be recycled.

  

Read more at:

<https://netofclothes.com/>

