Collaborating to be circular

Framed by our commitment to sustainable development, here at Inditex we are working hard on circularity, an end-to-end production and management model that goes from design to end of product life, promotes the recycling and reuse of garments to extend their life cycle and so minimises the consumption of natural resources and energy and the disposal of waste. At Inditex we are committed to embedding that model all along our value chain as it represents an opportunity for the industry’s transformation.

Innovation and technology development are crucial to the task of developing new materials and processes that can accelerate that transition. Collaboration holds the key to that effort: it is a joint effort between consumers, the industry, the scientific community and public authorities. Specifically at Inditex we are collaborating with a number of companies, universities and third-sector organisations, including MIT, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the Global Fashion Agenda and Euratex, on our roadmap towards circularity.

To make our products more functional, user-friendly and reusable we are working on the use of more resilient products with better dyeing and finishes that guarantee their durability; we are rolling out personalisation projects that increase our customers’ emotional bond with our products; and we are trying to lengthen our products’ useful lives and reduce their environmental footprint.

One of the biggest challenges we are encountering relates to microfibres. To advance on their elimination, in 2021 we worked intensely with prestigious international universities and research centres.

Likewise framed by our commitment to optimising the use of resources, in 2021 we began to charge for paper bags and envelopes in our stores in several markets in order to encourage our customers to reuse them. We earmarked a sum equivalent to amount so collected to environmental initiatives pursued by the organisations we collaborate with.

We also continued to work with our procurement and product teams in order to deliver our target of not selling any products in 2023 with single-use plastic packaging.

Taking our plastic elimination ambitions a step further, in 2021 we made a new pledge to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF): a 50% reduction in the use of virgin plastic in our packaging by 2025 by comparison with 2019.

To reduce our end-of-product-life impact, we have a project - Closing the Loop - whereby our customers can donate the clothing they no longer use to charities or third-party specialists by placing it in containers located in our stores and, in some countries, in on-street containers and even using home pick-up services.

The Closing the Loop program seeks to extend the life of collected products by reusing them, when it is possible to give them a second life, or recycling them, when they can no longer be reused.

All of the garments so collected are donated to those organisations which can give them to the needy, repair them to give them a second lease of life and/or sell them to finance their charity work. The idea is that the profits obtained from the programme get reinvested in the same market where the used clothing is collected. If it is not possible to put them back on the market, the donated or collected items are handed over for recycling, to extend their useful life by transforming them into new raw materials. Since 2015 we have collected 78,500 tonnes of clothing thanks to this programme.