Achieving a Circular Economy for Outdoor Gear
Photo: courtesy of Woody Gooch
There’s no surprise that outdoor enjoyment is ascending, especially with a renewed focus on health and fitness, the rise in disposable income, greater participation in a wider range of sports, and increased urbanization in developing nations. All of this has contributed to an increased need for gear and equipment around the world. U.S. data shows that the outdoor recreation economy accounted for 2.1 percent ($459.8 billion) of current-dollar gross domestic product (GDP) for the nation in 2019, and the outdoor industry is growing by 3.8 percent, a faster rate than the overall economy (2.8 percent), and a similar situation is playing out in Canada. Alongside this growth, the sustainability of outdoor gear has never been so vital. Considering the intention for this equipment in that it’s meant to be durable against the elements and intended to be worn or used for longer periods of time means that a circular economy is critical for prolonging the lifespan of outdoor equipment and ensuring these products retain their value.
Our journey into the circular economy of outdoor gear begins with the unlikely story of a cocoon cracking open and releasing a newly winged insect. From the process of metamorphosis where the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly, this revered insect leaves its encasing behind to decompose into its surroundings. From these extraordinary beginnings, some butterflies gain even greater transcendence through their continental and intercontinental travels. In Canada, many of our environments are graced with the presence of monarch butterflies - known for their bright orange wings, with a mosaic of chocolate-charcoal colored stripes and white eyes, which will brighten any verdant forest or field. In Canada, monarchs range from Alberta to Newfoundland, with extensive breeding in southern Ontario and southern Quebec. Monarchs, like many Canadians, make their annual trip to southwestern Mexico, a 3000 mile migration. As Australian Butterfly Sanctuary shares, “Amazingly, the Monarch is the only two-way migratory butterfly in existence. These iconic butterflies travel south to Mexico for Winter and then return north to North America for Spring.” Monarchs rival people in their zeal for adventure, but surpass us when it comes to being an effective ecological citizen: from shedding their biodegradable encasing to fertilizing flora and supporting a more biodiverse landscape. Monarch butterflies are also a food source for vertebrates further up the food chain, including birds, small animals and other insects. Monarch butterflies feast on what’s local to them, they are powered by the sun and what’s around them, their waste becomes a resource in their immediate environment, and through their pollination, they are continually regenerating the environment. Like other non-human fauna and flora, these insects have a positive impact on the environment; they are a living example of a circular economy in action.
Outdoor gear helps us soak up the natural world and bear witness to a panoply of life, and this is where we need to continue taking inspiration for shifting this industry to circularity. According to Ellen Macarthur Foundation, a circular economy is underpinned by a transition to renewable energy sources, and builds economic, natural, and social capital. It is based on three principles:
1) design out waste and pollution,
2) keep products and materials in use and
3) regenerate natural systems. In a circular economy, all materials - both biological and technical, are kept in a closed loop system, and their value is always retained or improved.
This is contrary to our current linear economic system, where we “take, make, waste”, where the products and packaging we rely on end up in landfills or polluting ecosystems, like many single-use plastics or fast fashion garments. The materials we depend on throughout all aspects of our lives, from our homes to the furthest reaches of the outdoors, is usually produced from this linear system: lacking quality, durability, and a way to be reused, repaired, remanufactured, refurbished or recycled. This encompasses the fact that these materials are made to become obsolete, like cheaply made running shoes that need to be replaced within the year. There are four types of planned obsolescence, and the final two are most pertinent to outdoor gear: software updates, contrived durability, perceived obsolescence, and prevention of repair. This can be seen with “latest and trendy” gear that folks feel urged to splurge on even though their existing gear works great, or with products that are fabricated in a way that makes fixing them difficult.
This is where our ol’ pals, the lepidopteras, wind their way back into the discussion, as the circular economy systems model is aptly named “the butterfly diagram”. This diagram is influenced by Cradle to Cradle’s two material cycles: the biological cycle on the left and the technical cycle on the right of the diagram. As it relates to outdoor gear and equipment, a lot of items exist in the technical cycle as they’re made from metals, hard plastics, synthetic fibres, and glass - from fibreglass snowboards, spandex bike shorts, polyamide ski jackets, to polyester hiking boots. All materials flow through “value loops”, which are represented with concentric arcs in the diagram - creating the visual of an abstract-like butterfly (if we’ve lost you, refer to the diagram!) The loops in the diagram exist on a spectrum as it relates to resource use, moving from least energy and resources used in the inner loops, to the most energy and resource exhausted with the outer loops.
The innermost loop of a circular economy includes sharing as well as maintaining and prolonging our gear. So, to preserve the most water, energy, land, and minerals means we need to depend on products that can be repaired and can remain sturdy over long periods of time. Fortunately, the repair revolution has hit the digital sphere en masse, democratizing this information, as seen with sites like ifixit.com, which goes by the phrase “Repair guides for every thing, written by everyone.” According to Popular Science, “Manufacturers including Patagonia, Osprey, Chaco, and Klymit offer warrantied repairs on worn gear—many have been doing so for decades—in an effort to keep customers happy with their equipment and more likely to return to the brands they trust when it’s time to update their kit. If you’ve purchased something from a company that offers this service, just send them whatever’s broken and they’ll patch or repair it, often for free, then return it to your doorstep in a matter of days or weeks.”
Long-lasting products can also be distributed through sharing platforms to shorter term renters, which also removes the need to continually buy new products. This greater access of being able to rent and borrow also challenges our notions around ownership and the need to endlessly collect gear, which in the most extreme manifestation, is known as gear acquisition syndrome. This can look like borrowing from a tool library to amend our gear, grabbing a kayak from a beloved neighbour, as well as renting and sharing websites, like Spinlister, which uses the tag “save money, meet awesome people, and consume less” where people can rent used bikes anywhere in the world from local citizens.
The second most inner loop of the butterfly diagram is reuse and redistribute, meaning that technical products can be reused and distributed to new users without losing any or much value. The reuse system is also powerful for making outdoor gear and equipment more accessible to a wider spectrum of society, as many people may not be able to afford products that are brand new. Online platforms, like Outmost, are scaling systems for reusing all types outdoor gear and equipment, from apparel to keep people safe and secure amidst the outdoor ingredients to lightly loved backpacks for climbing that next peak without breaking the bank. With Outmost, you can sell your extra gear or equipment that’s gathering dust and see that it gets the usage it deserves. Plus, these economical items could just be the ticket that an individual needs to pursue their outdoor dreams. For people looking to sell their gear, they can create a free account on Outmost, post items for free, and connect with potential buyers. Once the item sells, a confirmation email will be issued, along with information for shipping purchased items. The beauty of this is that Outmost helps issue payments securely once shipments are delivered, and all items are covered by Outmost Protection.
Next in our cascades of butterfly diagram loops is refurbish and remanufacture, both of which restore value to a product. According to Ellen Macarthur Foundation, when an item is remanufactured, it’s disassembled into its various components and rebuilt - which sometimes includes replacing old components. What comes of this is a product that’s nearly new, a hybrid of strengthened parts. When refurbishing an item, a product is repaired and cosmetically treated as much as possible to look and function as new, but no disassembly or replacement of components has occurred. These processes are commonplace with automobiles, heavy equipment, industrial equipment, electronics, and home appliances - and are now beginning to take off with outdoor gear, with bindings replaced on snowboards, new straps on hiking poles, hiking shoes getting new soles and multiple forms of used clothes getting combined into a new work of outdoor style wonder. An iconic example of this is Patagonia’s Worn Wear, where people trade in their used gear and clothing that’s in need of some serious TLC, and this gear gets repaired, or deconstructed and recombined with other gear or clothing parts. They share “Maybe it’s a displaced drawstring, a material mix up, or a lopsided logo. Whatever the case, the functionality remains”. Their recrafted clothing collection mixes and matches clothing, known for their eye-catching polychromatic combinations. As a leader in outdoor equipment, it’s only a matter of time before other big brands follow in Patagonia’s circular path.
The last loop is, you guessed it, recycling, is the most resource intensive out of all the technical material loops. Recycling is the least favourable option as it reduces the material value - meaning most items are “downcycled”. Furthermore, products are not usually designed to be recycled. They’re often “monstrous hybrids” made up of technical and biological materials, which can not be fully recycled or composted, like jackets containing both cotton and polyester. In addition to outdoor gear often being multi-material, they also often do not have local and free recycling pathways. Think of your camping chair that’s on its last leg or the torn tent that’s beyond broken - where does this go? For most locales, it’s unfortunately in the landfill. For a circular economy for outdoor gear, we need to rely on what we already have, purchase items that have ethical and sustainable supply chains, purchase and sell reused gear from Outmost, as well as avoid purchasing all together and lean into renting/borrowing for equipment we’re using for a one off or only on occasion. And, finally, we can increase reliance on gear that’s even regenerating the environment - making habitats cleaner and healthier for fellow adventurers, butterfly friends and all other critters. Bloom is one awe-inspiring illumination of this, as this company is harvesting ecologically devastating algae from algae blooms in locales like Florida. They’re turning this algae into a foam that can be used for the bottom of shoes - like runners and sandals, replacing the toxic plastic EVA foam that is typically used for these products.
Like the rest of the biophilic world that operates in accordance with the natural world, like our delicately winged friends, our increased attendance under the open sky needs to rely on outdoor equipment that’s made from and abiding by a circular economy.
