It’s worse than useless because it expands consumption

To begin with, it's important to note that the business community is promoting circular economy projects involving resale, rental, and even more-durable design to entrepreneurs as an additional revenue stream. A 2016 McKinsey & Company report on circularity frames it as an opportunity to expand markets to a new customer group without cannibalizing existing sales. It estimates that the European economy could unlock about $2 trillion from new circular economy businesses like electronics refurbishment and textile-to-textile recycling and simply from the "increased spending fueled by lower prices" associated with shared and secondhand products. Likewise, the business consulting firm Accenture promises a staggering $4.5 trillion windfall from investing in new circular economy businesses, including those that focus on advanced recycling technology, innovative new recyclable materials, sharing platforms (like ride or home sharing), or subscription models (like fashion-rental website Rent the Runway). Russell concedes that most big businesses that are exploring circularity aren't doing so at the expense of their main revenue streams. "These companies are not abandoning their make-new-products strategy," she says.

What that means is that in fashion and elsewhere, the circular economy is not replacing the linear economy; it's merely running parallel to it. In other words, circularity is being positioned as a way to drive new growth, not necessarily as a way to cut down on the use of raw materials. There's no evidence that any of the large brands embracing circularity are actually using fewer virgin resources overall. The fashion industry is a case in point: It still manufactures an estimated 100 billion garments annually, enough for every human on the planet to buy something new to wear every month. Total production of virgin textiles—whether polyester, cotton, or rayon—hit historic highs in 2019.