Fast fashion giants have ventured into textile recycling. Inditex, the parent company of Zar,a has committed to the circular economy model in all phases of the product cycle. Starting in Spain this September, Zara will offer shoppers free at-home collection of used clothing when delivering online orders. The company will put garment collection containers throughout its store network. The clothing will be recycled for the development of new textile raw materials.

Meanwhile Inditex has inked an exclusive agreement with Austrian fiber supplier Lenzing for the production of premium textile raw materials made from fabric waste generated by Inditex. Inditex will provide Lenzing with roughly 500 tons of textile waste, with the aim of raising this to around 3,000 tons within a few years. This will enable the Austrian company to produce around 48 million garments.

Closing the loop in textiles is a priority for Inditex—the company will support research into technology that will turn recycled garments into new textile fibers. Similarly, Swedish retailer H&M is also moving toward a 100 per cent circular business model, collecting more than 12,000 tons of unwanted garments in its stores in 2015 alone. Last year, it made more than one million products containing at least 20 per cent recycled material from collected garments.