Guest contribution • 02.08.2021

Digital Care Labels: Show eco-consumers you mean business

Why fashion should allow consumers to take part in their garment’s circularity story

Clothing brands are actively seeking ways to lighten their environmental impact. It’s shocking that, on average, 23 kilograms of greenhouse gases are produced per kilogram of fabric, and in North-West Europe alone, around 4.7 million tonnes of post-consumer textile waste is generated every year. Less than one percent of fibres used to make garments are recycled into new clothing. 

There’s been progress around reducing plastic packaging, and sourcing more sustainable and organic products. But to truly cut waste and reduce the sector’s extensive carbon footprint, we need to build full circularity into the fashion ecosystem. Finding ways to recycle garments rather than dump them in a landfill is a green prize worth fighting for. 

Woman wearing a white blouse smiles at the camera
Sarah Swenson, Global Senior Sustainability Manager, Avery Dennison
Source: Avery Dennison

Intelligent care labels tell the garment’s story

One strategy is for retailers and brands to commit to using the garment’s label itself as a mechanism to engage shoppers in the decision to recycle. At Avery Dennison, we believe digital triggers – for instance QR codes on care labels and RFID tags for retailers – hold the key. They’re a bridge, allowing consumers to check garment history and composition so everyone can easily access the information on how and where to recycle items. 

By scanning a QR code on a dress with a smartphone, product data opens in an app to provide the owner all the post-purchase information they need. Garment recyclers can verify the fiber composition which is essential for their processes, while resellers will be able to confirm authenticity. And of course, with QR codes on intelligent care labels, brands can track the volumes of inventory going back into the circular economy, and monitor how effectively they are paring down their carbon footprint. 

Avery Denison recently launched a pilot project with LA-based recycler Ambercycle, which creates virgin quality yarn from old polyester clothes. The partnership involves Avery Dennison’s Digital Care Labels being attached to Ambercycle’s garments – in this case, a range of recycled T-shirts. The labels feature a QR code that links to an app offering a digital ‘post purchase experience’ run by Avery Dennison’s new atma.io connected product cloud. It’s effectively a digital ID, detailing how that specific garment was produced and how it should be looked after, and recycled. 

Incentivising consumers

Will recycled clothes be cheaper for consumers? Will retailers pay for old clothes traded in? It will be interesting to see if such incentives appear. Brands will likely only start seeing major financial benefits from the post-consumer recycling process when commercial-scale automated systems are properly set up to process post-consumer textiles back into new garments. At that stage, they would be smart to share some of those cost savings with consumers. 

As supply chain partners build new commercialised systems, the circular recycling process will become competitive with the linear consumption system, especially as risks to raw materials occur ever more frequently in supply chains these days. 

Bags filled with old clothing
Source: Avery Dennison

Scaling infrastructure to support circularity

Investment in textile recycling plants is happening, but we need integrated data to support the journey to circularity. Today, sorters have to manually separate materials into hundreds of categories or use infrared technologies to make assumptions on garments compositions. But putting a digital trigger such as a RFID label or QR code on a garment to hold standardised data, allows reverse logistic partners to automate the sorting process. 

Worldwide there is a legal requirement for all garments to carry care labels, and digitising these seems a logical place to connect a garment’s owner with all the data that will lead to reuse. Young consumers are comfortable using smart phone apps, and familiar with scanning technology, so adoption should not be problematic for eco-conscious consumers.  

The Avery Dennison project's ambition is that one hundred percent of the clothes made with Ambercycle’s materials get turned into new garments at the end of their life. More broadly, the project showcases how these Digital Care Labels help consumers, retailers and recyclers unlock the potential of a truly circular fashion economy. 

Author: Sarah Swenson, Avery Dennison

related articles:

popular articles:

Thumbnail-Photo: Security for brand and shopping experience?
05.01.2023   #e-commerce #customer relationship management

Security for brand and shopping experience?

How retailers can protect their business from cybercriminals

There are numerous steps retailers can and should take to improve their security posture, protect their brand, and ensure a safe shopping experience for their customers during the holiday season (and beyond). Once the shopping season has begun, ...

Thumbnail-Photo: World Retail Congress
18.03.2023   #online trading #e-commerce

World Retail Congress

25.04.2023 - 27.04.2023 | Barcelona, Spain

Shaping the future of global retailRetailing has had to face enormous existential challenges. From the Covid-19 pandemic through to today’s worsening macro economic conditions, there are increasing operational pressures and serious impacts on ...

Thumbnail-Photo: Innovative Specials at EuroShop 2023
20.01.2023   #brick and mortar retail #retail

Innovative Specials at EuroShop 2023

Interactive areas for ideas and visions in retail provide new approaches for the future of inner cities and retail as well as multi-sensorial places

The Specials of EuroShop, the World’s No. 1 Retail Trade Fair, will again provide exciting impulses for the future of retail this year. From 26 February to 2 March 2023 the eight Specials in total will invite visitors to join in, network and ...

Thumbnail-Photo: E-commerce: Success with digital specialty shops?...
16.01.2023   #online trading #e-commerce

E-commerce: Success with digital specialty shops?

Three small retailers show how they celebrate online success with unusual products

In the German retail sector, digitization has never arrived across the board. Many smaller retailers in particular still do not have an online shop. On the other hand, there are retailers who show how to gain a foothold in online trading – ...

Thumbnail-Photo: Retail Supply Chain & Logistics Expo
16.02.2023   #retail #event

Retail Supply Chain & Logistics Expo

28.02.2023 - 01.03.2023 | London, United Kingdom

Customers want faster delivery times and an easier return system. In order to deliver this, retailers need to adapt their supply chain, and have a seamless warehousing and distribution system.The Retail Supply Chain & Logistics Expo provides a ...

Thumbnail-Photo: Attracting young customers with sustainability and metaverse...
22.01.2023   #e-commerce #retail

Attracting young customers with sustainability and metaverse

How ByondXR wants to shape the future of e-commerce

In marketing, standstill leads to regression faster than in many other sectors. Strategies that were the cutting edge ten years ago often no longer work today. "Generation Z" in particular has its own very specific demands with regard to ...

Thumbnail-Photo: Many paths lead to the checkout – or not!
09.02.2023   #online trading #retail

Many paths lead to the checkout – or not!

Analyse and optimise the quality of digital customer experiences

Knowing the online customer journey, even observing it over the user's shoulder – isn't that the dream of every online retailer? And then to understand why customers convert or not ...

Thumbnail-Photo: Global Retailing Ideas Summit
13.03.2023   #retail #event

Global Retailing Ideas Summit

16.03.2023 - 17.03.2023 | San Francisco, US

The intimate event for the future of retailingMore intimate in both its setting and size, the GR Ideas Summit creates an environment that genuinely allows attendees to interact and engage one another and to extend the learning and connecting beyond ...

Thumbnail-Photo: Australia to spearhead ‘paperization’ of confectionery packaging in...
07.02.2023   #sustainability #food retail

Australia to spearhead ‘paperization’ of confectionery packaging in Asia-Pacific

According to GlobalData, leading confectionery companies are ready to test paper packaging in Australia in 2023

Leading multinational confectionery makers, Nestlé and Mars Wrigley Australia are set to test-launch their iconic chocolates and candy brands in paper packaging in Australia in 2023. The move, if successful, will trigger the ...

Thumbnail-Photo: Companies create association for the collective management of textile...
13.02.2023   #sustainability #fashion

Companies create association for the collective management of textile waste in Spain

Spanish branches of ten companies aim to manage textile and footwear waste through a collective system of producer responsibility

Decathlon, H&M, IKEA, Inditex, Kiabi, Mango and Tendam have created the "Association for the Management of Textile Waste", with the aim of managing textile and footwear waste generated in the Spanish market through a "Collective ...

Supplier

SALTO Systems GmbH
SALTO Systems GmbH
Schwelmer Str. 245
42389 Wuppertal
SES-imagotag SA
SES-imagotag SA
55 place Nelson Mandela
90000 Nanterre
Captana GmbH
Captana GmbH
Bundesstraße 16
77955 Ettenheim