The Circular Economy Nightmare: Is there a better alternative? (Yes there is)

 

The Circular Economy Nightmare: Is there a better alternative? (Yes there is)

 

Focus: Europe’s EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) Law

Recently, Europe passed a statute which holds producers responsible for the recycling of their clothes, known as the EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) law.

What is EPR? “Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is an environmental policy approach that shifts the responsibility of a product’s lifecycle to the producer, including design, take-back, recycling, and final disposal. While variations of EPR now have a worldwide presence, the European Union (EU) was the first to introduce and implement the legislative tool for EPR in Europe.   

And “the EU requires producers to undergo a compliance process. This process includes registering as a producer, following product or packaging design and labeling requirements, reporting on the amount of product or packaging placed on the market, achieving recycling targets, and funding the recycling and/or recovery at end of life.   

Here’s how it looks:

 

So part of your cost as a manufacturer will include a process for collecting and processing goods you already sold. Clearly, these costs will be reflected in the initial pricing of the item, and will go up further if costs increase. 

Once this law goes into effect (as with most laws, it is confusing, but it has been approved and will require compliance: “In September 2025, the European Parliament approved new rules under which EU countries should set up schemes that would make sure producers of clothing, accessories, hats, footwear, blankets, linens, curtains, and optionally mattresses, cover the costs for collecting, sorting, and recycling their products” ) , there probably will be a huge increase in the amount of goods that are turned in. And then what? Then what is not-- bingo! They are recycled.

What is the truth about recycled garments? 

Here’s some real news:

“Textiles collected via clothing containers consist of 55% reusable textiles and an average of 37% suitable for recycling (Boer Group figures). But how much of this is actually recycled? In reality, only 1% of all post-consumer textiles are recycled into new clothing. 12% is downcycled into something of lesser value and 87% of textile waste is pure loss. The amount of clothes that is recycled is thus much lower than the marketing campaigns of the big fast fashion chains would suggest.” 

And, what is never mentioned in all the hoopla about recycling and circularity, salvaging that small percentage that will actually become clothing takes a lot of energy and water; this is never reported.

Also, the fact that gets quietly ignored is that recycling synthetics that will take 200 years to decompose is what? A stay of execution? Recycled polyester is still—polyester. I know there are efforts to “sustainableize” synthetic fibers but we can agree, especially given the huge percentage and tonnage of production that these fibers comprise, it is not something we can depend on, or even consider, in the near future.

But the problem remains the problem.

I had a nightmare about this: I dreamt a person (or a million people) in Europe bought a polyester blouse from some cheap web site. A month later, the seams rip and she dutifully returns it for recycling following the instructions. Then, it goes through the recycling process and out comes the same blouse. Same thing happens again; it is recycled again by the next consumer. And on and on and on a thousand (million) times just like in the movie Groundhog Day; energy is used to make and recycle the blouse, microparticles are leached into the water, and the price, if we calculate all the factors, is in the tens of millions. 

Scared me—does it scare you? 

What are Lotus & Michael’s vision of the textile and clothing world we want? For us, the vision of a world where nature is worshipped in all our pursuits—manufacturing, gardening, cooking, and we don’t create schmutz .

 Natural fibers like cotton and linen as our materials, mother of pearl or stone in our buttons, no plastic in our packaging or shipping. Most important, plant-dyed fabrics that represent real sustainability in that even the dyestuffs are not chemical imitations.

And the garments are built to be multifunctional. One style can be worn on multiple occasions—to work, to garden, to dine out, to hang out at the beach, etc. Classic styling prevents “I’m tired of this,” beautiful, natural colorways are always in style. Last but not least, our embroidery makes for an individual experience. Built to last. And wear—everywhere.

Here's our Snake on a Lake dress at the beach in Sanya, Hainan Island;

 

What does all this have to do with the world of recycling as forced on makers with legislation such as the EPR? Here’s my logic:

Brands, knowing that they will have to pay coming and going for each style they produce, will produce less. What they DON’T produce will be profitable in that it will save them from the reckoning of what goes out must come back.

What will their thought process be (or what should it be)? “We need to produce less, and produce stuff that won’t come back fast, or at all.”

Sound familiar? It should. Sounds like us.

So, in conclusion, the best possible consequence of the EPR will not be its legislated compliance (if it works because it is mandatory, at what cost?), as most think, but in the reimagining of the clothing effort from produce more so customers buy more and sell more, to producing what won’t be back in the company’s hands next month—or even next year.

Just like Lotus & Michael.

Links to see product for yourself: www.lotusandmichael.com  and our lifestyle story on Youtube: www.youtube.com@lotusandmichael 

 

 Sourceintelligence.com, 4/7/2025, “What are the EPR regulations in the EU?” https://blog.sourceintelligence.com/what-are-the-epr-directives-in-the-eu

  Ibid.

  European Parliament, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20201208STO93327/fast-fashion-eu-laws-for-sustainable-textile-consumption#:~:text=In%20September%202025%2C%20the%20European,sorting%2C%20and%20recycling%20their%20products.

  Cosh.eco, 8/27/2021, “How does textile recycling work?” https://cosh.eco/en/articles/how-to-recycle-second-hand-clothing#:~:text=But%20how%20much%20of%20this%20is%20actually,87%25%20of%20textile%20waste%20is%20pure%20loss.

  Oxford Languages Dictionary, “Schmutz,” https://www.google.com/search?q=schmutz+definition&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS1032US1032&oq=schmutz+definition&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDU5MjFqMGo3qAIIsAIB&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8