The Dutch Denim Deal is a cross-industry partnership between public and private companies that could offer a blueprint for a circular system. What progress has been made in the year since it was signed and what are the implications for the rest of the world?

Recycling denim is the future of the industry, according to Besim Ozek, business development director at Bossa. The Turkish mill is one of the early protagonists, having invested in recycled content and technology for more than 15 years. “Organic is wonderful, I love it, but it’s not scalable; you can’t increase it as the organic cotton plantations are limited,” he says, “but there are plenty of fabrics in the garbage and that is the future of the textiles industry.”

In October 2020, 30 companies from the Dutch denim industry and suppliers, as well as public partnerships and entities, signed the Dutch Denim Deal – a commitment to set up a “reverse supply chain” for recycling fabrics and to increase the amount of recycled content in collections. The initial target was for the brands, jointly, to produce 3 million pairs of jeans with at least 20% recycled content by the end of the three-year period, and to work towards having a minimum of 5% recycled content as standard as well as designing for circularity.

Although it was officially signed in October 2020, the workings go back as far as 2017, when a group led by The House of Denim Foundation’s James Veenhoff sought to set up a circular working group to encourage wider use of recycled content in fabrics. At the time, the adding of post-consumer waste to fabrics was a fairly new concept for brands, although some mills had been working on it for years. It was felt a new circular way of working could be achieved if players from different disciplines worked together to create a network.

Main challenges

Bossa has been joined by fellow Turkish mills Orta, Calik and Ereks, and since the signing, Kipas has joined, plus AGI Denim and Soorty in Pakistan. These mills have all been working with recycled fabrics for a few years, and are constantly improving and updating techniques. At Bossa, one third of its fabrics are now Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certified, meaning they contain at least 20% recycled content, and there are more than 50 fabrics to choose from. Sticking to the optimum 20% is key. “I can produce 50% but it’s too risky, because the fibre length of cotton is 30mm and the recycled fibre is 15mm,” explains Mr Ozek. “If you increase that ratio it affects the quality.”

He cites three challenges. The first is educating brands. “When we started a few years, ago, brands wanted recycled but they wanted everything to have a uniform look; they have to compromise slightly. It’s almost impossible to have very heavy washing, too. Now they know what’s possible.” He admitted it has been a learning curve for the mills, too. “It used to be almost impossible to develop lighter weights, but today I can produce 8oz fabric.”

The second is polyester, “a big headache” for mills. “If there’s polyester in the post-consumer denim, we can’t do anything with it. It can be used in other industries, such as the knitting industry. We have to do an overdye on the fabric, but the indigo dye only dyes the cellulosic fibres.”

The third hurdle is cost. The Deal includes a clause that says mills must enhance the efficiency of machines and processes so that a realistic retail price can be achieved – but “cutting all the parts we can’t use is costly and labour intensive and it’s not easy to tell the brands about the cost difference,” he adds.

Government muscle

One of the key differences from other circularity-focused collaborations is that this time, the government is involved, with public entities working alongside the private sector to set up and optimise a collection system that will help feed the demand. “Civic initiatives are at the heart of these efforts. Where such initiatives encounter obstacles that the organisers believe can be tackled at central government level, the government will seek to remove them,” says the official text.

Traditionally, the securing of recycled content has been down to the mills, which have their own relationships with textile waste companies, but the Deal adds scope for the brands to build their own networks and take more responsibility for waste. It states, “brands need to work with local authorities to develop new revenue models to optimise the collection system”. This part is one of the main challenges, Nicolas Prophte, vice-president of sourcing, production and innovation in denim for Tommy Hilfiger, tells us. “We need the public sector to act as a facilitator, set the right public policies and steer the stakeholders to set up efficient waste collection and sorting processes.”

PVH Corp, owner of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, joined at the six-month mark. PVH has already neared some of the initial targets alone – producing a 100% recycled jean in 2019 as well as 2.3 million pieces with 20% post-consumer recycled (PCR) by last aututmn – but wanted to join to pass on its experience. “We can’t drive industry change alone and have found that the Denim Deal is a unique opportunity to work collectively with public authorities and key stakeholders across the entire denim value chain to close the denim loop,” adds Mr Prophte.

Wheat from chaff

Downstream, textile waste processing companies will “strive to find an adequate market for non-usable PCR materials, to limit the cost of PCR cotton” and will “scale up and improve the quality of textile collection”. The Deal includes a plan to set up a new collection and sorting hub in the Netherlands.

Sorting company Wieland Textiles uses a near infrared technology to categorise textiles into 90 parts in a split second, based on the fibre composition, structure and colour. However, the Fibersort machine cannot remove buttons, zips and labels, so this is done in Turkey. “We intend to invest in trim-clean technology that will enable us to remove those buttons, zips and labels ourselves, which will make transport movements unnecessary,” says Hans Bon, director of Wieland. “The labels are the most important: polyester labels in cotton or wool garments should be abolished, or at least to be made of the same material as the garment. If this happened, it would be revolutionary.” He suggests if the Deal leads to more circular jeans, there is no reason not to do the same with other post-consumer textiles.

One year mark

The signatories met at the one-year point at PVH Europe’s Amsterdam office in October 2021 to learn more about the practical natural of recycled fibres, discuss what progress had been made and set out the next steps. “The session felt like a big step forward, even though we are tackling complex challenges… new alliances, new insights, relationships with even bigger ecosystems, the role of governments and consumers,” explains James Veenhoff. “Our coalition members are finding out that working together is fun, inspiring and is leading to progress.” He adds that governments need to understand and support initiatives by designing fiscal structures that create a level playing field, as well as providing incentives. “Let’s turn this momentum into a new standard: post-consumer recycling should become the new norm.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Utrecht-based brand Kuyichi has increased the number of its fabrics with PCR cotton fibres from a quarter of styles (with 60% PCR cotton) in 2020 to 38% (with 72% PCR) in 2021. “As we are a small brand, we value collaborating with others,” Zoé Daemen, corporate responsibility manager at Kuyichi, says. “We hope the Denim Deal will push the denim industry towards a place where incorporating recycled fibres has become a no-brainer.”

She also points out it’s significant that the Netherlands is the central point for the initiative – speaking the same language and being active in the same markets makes it easier to communicate. “The Netherlands has been an example in denim for a long time,” she says. “It is so nice that we can now show another kind of example – not trend-wise, but in terms of innovation and industry change.”

All participating brands are stepping up their actions on recycled cotton, says Mr Prophte, “but we’re still facing challenges in terms of waste collection, sorting, transport and transparency. To set up the reverse supply chain we envision, these will be the priorities for the coming year.”

Global implications

The concept has global implications. It could act as a blueprint for similar systems in the US, Pakistan, Mexico and elsewhere. A Europe-wide system could be implemented, if the major players could be identified and an efficient reverse supply chain set up. There are many questions to answer: how can consumers learn where to take old jeans? How do we clean up the waste streams, so clothes don’t get mixed with household rubbish? Which collection and sorting companies have the correct capabilities? How can other governments be encouraged to invest? 

There are several other circularity pilots running concurrently. Accelerating Circularity is now moving into the trial phase in the US and is supported by Lenzing, Kontoor, Gap and Cone Denim. Fashion for Good has launched a 15-month project, Sorting for Circularity India, alongside adidas, PVH, Arvind, Birla Cellulose and Levi Strauss & Co; and The Circular Fashion Partnership’s Bangladesh-based pilot includes Cyclo, Recover, Renewcell, Lenzing, and Infinited Fibre Company.

In the Dutch Deal, the possibility to scale up and transfer the learnings is an integral consideration. The chain should continue beyond the three-year period and be replicated or expanded for other countries, other products categories, other stakeholders or even other fibres, suggests Mr Prophte. “We really hope to encourage other countries to adopt this model for scaled post-consumer recycled cotton uptake,” he says.

On the mill side, all systems are go. The fabrics, quantities and qualities are proven, says Mr Ozek – brands now must be brave enough to place the big orders. “Everyone loves to hear about recycled denim, but the quantities and commitments are a bit slow at the moment. They are sometimes afraid, they don’t know how to manage it. In 2021, I produced more than 6 million metres for just one company, but some people are still nervous.”

By the conclusion of the project in 2023, answers will have been found and loops closed, with cotton looping around Europe and into the mills. For Mr Prophte and Mr Ozek, this should be an industry standard within the next three or four years. “Just like recycled paper, 30 years ago it was yellow-ish and the quality was poor and nobody wanted it,” says Mr Ozek. “Today, everyone is using it, and recycled textiles will be the same. The Denim Deal is a wonderful project, I totally believe it’s the future of the world.” 

Wieland Textiles’ machines can sort and detect fibres’ unique spectrum of colours and make a high-speed analysis based on the composition, colour and structure of the used fibres. The garments are transported by the conveyor belt and an air blower blows the analysed clothes into bags.
Photo: Wieland Textiles

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