ventory.  In doing so, it’s alleged that the brand – which recently received the poorest grade on ethical ranking website Good on You – would reduce its reliance on new, raw materials, while simultaneously clearing out unused stock from other brands. According to Queen of Raw’s impact measuring algorithm, by diverting one million yards of fabric from its excess inventory, Shein would be “on the trajectory to become one of the global leaders in repurposing deadstock materials.” Shein has not clearly stated what percentage of its collection will be made from deadstock fabric, however, it has been widely reported that the brand uploads over 9,000 new items of clothing to its website every day. Caitrin Watson, director of sustainability at Shein, said that partnering with Queen of Raw would support the brand’s advancement toward a more circular system. “We are poised to purchase high-quality surplus materials [which would] help us to reduce the environmental impact of our products and become a circular solution for other businesses,” Watson said.   Research by the Australian Fashion Council in 2022 found that 260,000 tonnes of clothing in Australia was reaching landfill each year, at a consumer cost of $9.2 billion. Fuelling the fast fashion model According to managing partner of The Growth Activists, Rosanna Iacono, the new partnership between Shein and Queen of Raw does little to move the needle in shifting the industry toward true circularity. Rather, she told Inside Retail that  repurposing already overproduced materials can have a harmful effect in perpetuating the cycle of wasteful overproduction– if not stewarded carefully. Iacono added that this type of partnership can be “highly deceptive” if it’s not clearly communicated to customers that the environmental footprint of the garment is not reduced through this process.  This is because the deadstock material used by Shein was still produced in the same way that a newly ordered fabric would have been. Further, Iacono believes that the partnership could provide a commercial advantage for Shein, and incentivise them to produce new garments at a faster rate, because they have a readily usable supply of materials available to them. “The risk is that consumers begin to believe that the garments they are purchasing have a smaller environmental footprint, when in reality they do not,” Iacono said. “This further fuel[s] their hyper-fast fashion model.” Ultra short lifecycles Iacono believes that brands like Shein cannot make significant sustainability improvements without fundamentally overhauling their operating models. She noted that fast fashion brands are dependent on excessive consumer consumption, and are reliant on producing garments at the lowest possible price to feed that purchasing frenzy. As a result, the garments are often not durable, and end up in landfill. “Also fundamental to [this] business model is peddling products with ultra-short lifecycles, because [the] designs are based on micro-trends that last days or weeks before being replaced by the next new look,” Iacono said. “Their products are literally conceived to be worn no more than a few times before being discarded.”  If Shein wanted to demonstrate a true commitment to circularity, Iacono maintained that it would start producing more durable garments fit for reuse, resale and recycling. “Until they make moves in this direction, circularity efforts like this one are mostly virtue signalling,” she said. Circular economy inevitability Regarding the effectiveness of circular economy-focused organisations like Queen of Raw, Iacono noted that they have an important role to play in reducing textile waste. But, she cautioned that these services can provide an excuse for continued overproduction, with garment producers knowing there’s an outlet for excess stock. “Large industry players will hungrily gobble up because it serves their sustainability narrative,” she said. Iacono added that the retail industry needed to use every means available to them to avoid overproduction. In addition to inventory planning and management platforms, she pointed to right-shoring – which sees a certain percentage of products produced locally or closer to the destination market – and re-commerce initiatives as strategies to improve sustainable production. “The sooner businesses start understanding how they must adapt their models to survive and thrive in a changed global system, the better for them and all their stakeholders,” she said. “The circular economy is an inevitability.”