Creating a circular economy with Cotopaxi & TERSUS, Ep #23

Oct 4, 2022

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I’m not going to sugar coat this – fast fashion stinks. It creates a truly unfathomable amount of wasted materials, water, labor, money and carbon emissions.

This means it provides the perfect context for discussing today’s prevailing paradigm for eradicating waste – not just in fashion, but in all sectors. The idea is a bold one – that we can transform our economy from an extractive, wasteful, linear system of using and discarding stuff, to a circular economy that keeps products, components and materials in circulation for future use. It's an idea that has gained tremendous attention and enthusiasm across the business community in recent years, though it still remains quite difficult to achieve.

For this discussion, we’re joined by two people working hard to make the apparel industry circular: Annie Agle, Sr Director of Impact & Sustainability at Cotopaxi and Peter Whitcomb, President of TERSUS Solutions.

Annie and Peter are true leaders in this field, with clear visions of what a circular future could look like and the hard earned knowledge of the challenges we face. I hope you enjoy this conversation, and if nothing else, think more about throwing out clothes in the future. Here we go.

In today’s episode, we cover:

[3:39] What the term “circular economy” means and why it's a helpful framework
[10:18] The Del Dia Program: A Cotopaxi success story
[12:40] The biggest challenge about keeping materials out of landfills
[14:58] What TERSUS is doing and the problem that they’re aiming to solve
[20:07] The environmental impact of TERSUS’ waterless cleaning process
[23:18] Consumer interest and how Cotopaxi is driving demand for secondhand goods
[24:07] The economic toll that we're already seeing from water-related climate impacts
[28:37] The growth of resale - what portion of the market will eventually become secondhand products
[31:50] Thinking about other circular economy business models
[42:09] What has made the circular narrative so resonant and successful
[41:58] What do we need to do to accelerate implementation of circularity
[45:55] How we all contribute to reducing waste and building a more circular economy

Creating a circular economy with Cotopaxi & TERSUS, Ep #23

In today’s episode, we cover:

Resources Mentioned

Connect with Annie Agle and Peter Whitcomb

Connect With Jason Rissman