Primark enhances sustainability goals with updated circular framework

Fashion and lifestyle retailer Primark has updated its Circular Product Standard 2.0 to “scale circular design across its business,” as it tightens its criteria on materials, durability and recyclability for select product lines.

In a statement, Primark said its updated Circular Product Standard 2.0, which first launched in 2023, would introduce a new “progressive design level,” to set clearer expectations for more advanced design by raising requirements around materials, durability and recyclability, including the use of post consumer recycled textiles.

Informed by three years of “learning, testing and collaboration,” the revised framework aims to provide a clear and practical approach to circular design for Primark and its suppliers, as well as defining what Primark means by circular by design. This includes ensuring that clothes are designed in line with its durability framework, they are made with recycled or more sustainably sourced fibres and designed to be recycled at the end of its life.

Circular design is now embedded across nine key product categories for the retailer, including denim, jersey, knitwear, nightwear, shirts, skirts, blouses, dresses and leisurewear. This has led to 5 percent of all Primark clothing units sold during the 2024/2025 financial year being circular by design, including 20 percent of jersey and 8 percent of denim.

In Circular Product Standard 2.0, Primark has focused on solutions that are “practical, achievable, and scalable,” and has flagged what it calls “small but meaningful changes,” such as reducing the depth of elasticated waistbands and removing non functional metal elements like rivets, as well as including more recyclable printing techniques to help improve recyclability.

Primark launches its updated Circular Product Standard 2.0

Nicholas Lambert, head of circularity and materials at Primark, said: “As we relaunch and update our Circular Product Standard, we do so with the benefit of having learned a lot over the past three years.

“We know that we haven’t solved every challenge or answered every question, far from it. Instead, we hope this updated approach reflects our commitment to learn and continue to achieve progress (not perfection) in collaboration with our partners, suppliers, and colleagues. We continue to firmly believe that circular fashion should be affordable for all. We hope that this updated Circular Product Standard 2.0 will support that ambition.”

The update comes as the regulatory landscape for circularity is evolving, with governments and the EU introducing new requirements on product design, the use of recycled materials, durability, traceability and end-of-life responsibility.

Lambert added: “Inbound regulation and legislation is changing and challenging our (and the industry’s) understanding of what circular design actually means. Meanwhile, emerging textile-to-textile innovation is redefining our understanding of which fibres, materials and items of clothing can be more easily recycled now and in the coming years. Having spent three years working on putting circular design theory into practice, we wanted to share our experiences, as well as the challenges and opportunities we see.

“We’re proud of the progress made over the past three years. The fact that 5 percent of our clothing is circular by design within the space of three years reflects the huge collective effort of many colleagues and suppliers.”

Primark has more than 475 stores across 18 countries in the UK, Europe, the US and the Middle East, employing more than 80,000 colleagues.