Exploratory Study on Circular Economy Approaches A Comparative Analysis of Theory and Practice

4.8 Case Zeta 81

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Table 12 Overview of circular economy approach of case Zeta

Innovation Type Circular Economy Approach Organization

Zeta

Product

Innovation

(Changes the

product)

Circular Supplies (e.g. creation of products which

are fully recyclable)

x

Resource recovery (e.g. creation of new products to

use up left-overs from the production line)

x

Remanufacturing (e.g. implementation of new

products which can be built from the reusable parts

of the original product)

x

Process

Innovation

(Changes the

process)

Circular Supplies (e.g. use of renewable energy for

the production line)

x

Organizational

Innovation

(Changes or adds

a business model)

Sharing Platform (e.g. enable customers to extend

the use of their products)

Product as a Service (e.g. sell the products access,

internalize the lifecycle management)

Product Life Extension (e.g. gather used products

and resell them if possible, replace certain parts of

the product)

The first circular economy approach selected is circular supplies on product level.

Case Zeta has implemented a closed-loop (Cradle-to-Cradle certified) product

line. This means that all components used for the production of this collection can

be reused at the end of their lifecycle. Components either belong to the biological

or technical cycle as is compulsory in the Cradle-to-Cradle concept. This concept

has already been explained in chapter 2.3.1 of this thesis. The Cradle-to-Cradle

collection of case Zeta includes apparel, footwear and accessories. The initiative

requires customers to bring back their clothes to the company-own stores where

recycle bins collect worn out products and distribute them accordingly. Products

belonging to the biological cycle are sent to an industrial composting facility while

the ones belonging to the technical cycle are sent to recycling partners. The recyclers

disassemble the products into their components, and then process them into raw

material which is sold to make new products.

Two examples of the circular economy approach resource recovery are the use of

recycled resources and the valorization of cutting waste. The organization integrated

two different recycled materials into their products. These were recycled polyester

and recycled thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) which is a material commonly