This blog post was written by Anjulina Desai, co-founder of DEZEN, a brand creating fully circular fashion accessories. Explore DEZEN's products here.

Can We Go Beyond Being Sustainable and Transition to a Circular economy?

There’s an enormous buzz around being more sustainable in our lifestyle and buying habits, but that’s not enough to address the many climate change impacts we face. Being sustainable is a good start but it’s not enough. To truly be in harmony with the planet we need to look at how we consume through the lens of being circular.

Here’s a short eco-challenge quiz to assess your knowledge.

1. What is the Circular Economy?

Designing products to stay in use as long as possible, and at the end of their lives become healthy nutrients for something else.
Recycling, baby
An economy that is based on circles of consuming more and more
An economy based on circular arguments
None of the above

Image source

Answer to Question 1: Design products to stay in use as long as possible.

The Circular Economy is a sustainable system based on nature. Waste and toxicity are designed out of the system, and products are kept in use as long as possible. Just like in nature, by design everything is healthy food for something else — materials flow from one (life)form into the next. It is a model that can work for eons, just like it has in nature for 3.8 billion years.

2. How much of our economy is circular?

Answer to Question 2: 8%

The minimal amount of our economy being circular means that more virgin materials are being used, landfills continue to fill up, pollution rises, and our biodiversity is impacted. We can do better!

3. What can be recycled indefinitely? (Multiple answers apply)

Glass
Plastic
Aluminum
Paper
None of the above

Answer to Question 3: Glass and aluminum

Glass and aluminum can generally be recycled indefinitely. Recycled aluminum uses significantly less energy than virgin aluminum, and up to 70% of all mined aluminum is still in use today. Glass does require more energy to recycle, and therefore reuse before recycling is a strategy that is more eco-efficient. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of the type of sand needed for glass manufacture. Currently in the US, only about 26% of glass is recycled. A lot ends up crushed in landfills to weigh down the other trash.

Paper can generally be recycled 5-7 times before the quality degrades too much. Ideally it can be composted after that. Plastic bottles can be recycled 1-2 times before the quality degrades too much.

4. What percentage of the trash going into landfills is compostable (including food scraps, paper, yard trimmings, and wood)?

100%
88%
51%
28%
0%

Answer to Question 4: 51%

Globally, over 1.3 billion tons of food worth nearly $1 trillion in retail value are thrown away. Over 51% of the trash going to landfills is compostable, including food scraps, paper, yard trimmings, and wood.

Unfortunately, the environmental costs of food waste worldwide are staggering, and 3.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere each year through the production, harvesting, transporting, and packaging of (ultimately) wasted food. Even more troubling: once food waste reaches the landfills, it begins to decompose and emit methane gas. Methane has 21 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide—meaning it has an even greater impact on global warming than CO2. You can reduce your food waste by buying only what you need and taking responsibility for your food scraps by returning these nutrient-dense items to the earth. Composting fertilizes future plants, clears space in landfills, and dramatically reduces your personal greenhouse gas emissions.

5. On average how many clothes does the average American throw away?

5 lbs
10 lbs
36 lbs
80 lbs
121lbs

Answer to Question 6: 80 lbs

“In the last twenty years, the volume of clothes Americans throw away has doubled from 7 million to 14 million tons. That equals 80 pounds per person per year.” -Author Dana Thomas, "Fashionopolis."

Fashion and circularity

Whether it is fashion, food, packaging, construction, consumer products, etc. all industries stand to benefit from being produced through circular design. To be circular means to think through the entire lifecycle of a product and the impact it has on the planet, its carbon footprint and the people involved in producing the items. To do that we have to move from the current linear way products are produced and rethink what materials we use, how we produce products, how we treat our employees to how we collect back products and return them to nature or re-use them. That is exactly what we have done at DEZEN for fashion accessories.

We use cutting-edge technology to produce our products locally in San Francisco, California in a pollution free manufacturing environment with plant and bio-based resin with an almost zero carbon footprint. Our proximity to our US customers and the packaging we use also adds to our low carbon footprint. We’re proud of our accomplishments and believe transparency and information can enable everyone to participate in climate action. As a low-carbon brand, we believe our customers should have the information and the choice on their impact on the planet.

We hope other products and brands will also follow suit to show their impact on the planet like how we view nutrition labels for the foods we eat.

We fully close the loop and offer all our customers the opportunity when they are ready to transition to another style to send us back their DEZEN accessories and we will make sure they do not end up in the landfill. From our initial stages we have built into the design the goal of collecting back our products. We offer customers the opportunity to be fashionable and trendy while working in harmony with the planet. You don’t have to choose between being sustainability and trendy. With DEZEN you get both!

In addition, before you buy our products you can test the how they look on you by using our Snapchat Lens. By making it easier for our customers to find the right look we reduce waste, returns and only produce products that our customers enjoy.

As proud as we are of making DEZEN a fully circular brand, it is going to take more than us and the few circular brands that are available on the market to make a difference. This is where each of you can make a difference.

Here are a few tips to help increase the circular economy:

Look for, purchase and share companies that use renewable materials in their products. Awareness and adoption are key! (If you know of a circular brand you love – drop your suggestion in the comments).
Ask how long it takes for the materials in a product to breakdown. If it takes more than your lifetime, you’re passing it on to the next generation. Did you know spandex takes hundreds of years to decompose. It’s best to avoid all synthetic fabrics (polyester, acrylic, nylon, spandex).
Since there is limited availability of circular products when purchasing items, buy items that will last you a long time rather than fast fashion which is not meant to be used often and falls apart quickly.
Inquire how employees who make the clothes are being treated - it’s unlikely a t-shirt you buy for $5 is going to be providing livable wages and a clean environment at that price.
Even when you know a popular brand doesn’t have a circular option contact their customer service to let them know you’d like to have that option. When we let brands know that we their customers want better products and show them there is a demand for these items they are more likely to produce them.
And lastly, packaging matters – when possible, avoid single use packaging and support brands that are using compostable materials and reuseable packaging. Imagine if all e-commerce companies used re-usable shipment containers!

Together we can make a difference!

Shop DEZEN: Jewelry with a low carbon footprint

Can We Go Beyond Being Sustainable and Transition to a Circular Economy?