The Textiles Key Elements Framework is based on the main Key Elements Framework which renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive textile-focused strategies and interventions. 

The framework is action-based to provide users with concrete inspiring exemples to prevent and reduce the textiles waste mountain. 

The Framework consists of:
- 3 core elements: activities directly handling textile product or material flows; and uniquely,
- 4 Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.

Under which strategies provide further detail. Finally, each strategy consists of a diversity of tangible solutions which are framed in relation to the sought outcome. 

'Click through each of the seven elements cards below to explore the framework and circular textile-focused case studies in more depth!'

This framework was developed in collaboration with Circle Economy's textiles team. Read more about it [here]( https://www.circle-economy.com/programmes/textiles). 

Engage and guide customers and consumers to ensure circular use of products

Customer/consumer collaboration [Textiles]

Designing products to increase consumer’s emotional attachment and ensure longer use

Design for product attachment, emotional durability [Textiles]

Recovering and reusing waste heat, gas, etc. for energy

Recovery and reuse of waste energy [Textiles]

Working together with stakeholders and parties in other unrelated industries to implement circular economy strategies and opportunities

Cross-industry projects, pilots [Textiles]

Enacting measures that optimise energy use

Energy efficiency [Textiles]

Providing products through sharing between consumers, customers, etc.

Peer to peer sharing or resale [Textiles]

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way

Prioritise regenerative resources [Textiles]

Developing or utilising online platforms to enable circular economy opportunities through information, product or service offering

Online platforms [Textiles]

Utilise bio-based, reusable, non-toxic and non-critical materials

Regenerative materials [Textiles]

Providing services through a subscription plan with regular payment schemes

Subscription-based services [Textiles]

Deliver services through business models that ensure maximum value

Service business models [Textiles]

Processing waste streams into fuels such as biogas, biofuels, pellets, etc.

Processing waste into fuel [Textiles]

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes [Textiles]

Specific programmes or initiatives to help customers become more circular 

Customer programmes [Textiles]

Employ online platforms to connect and improve information sharing between stakeholders

Digital platforms [Textiles]

Working together with the community and engaging them in the company operations

Joint product development [Textiles]

Allowing customers to alter and modify certain features of the product

Customisation [Textiles]

Providing repair services or maintenance services for products or parts

Product maintenance, repair [Textiles]

Utilising data and models to to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Data analytics, modelling [Textiles]

Engage internally to guide employees and facilitate greater knowledge sharing between internal divisions

Internal collaboration [Textiles]

Integrating circular economy thinking into employee evaluations that are tied to professional compensation

Financial incentives tied to the circular economy [Textiles]

Initiatives with disadvantaged communities, minorities, people distanced from the labour market

Give-back programmes [Textiles]

Putting in place purchasing guidelines for procurement departments and evaluating suppliers on circular economy principles

Circular procurement [Textiles]

Developing or utilising online marketplaces to enable the peer-to-peer exchange of products and services

Peer-to-peer online marketplaces [Textiles]

Employ technologies to gather and analyse data to provide insights on resource use

Data and insights [Textiles]

Using renewable energy like solar, wind, etc. or renewable fuels like biomass, etc.

Renewable energy, fuels [Textiles]

Utilise waste streams as a source of secondary resources and recover waste for reuse and recycling

Use waste as a resource [Textiles]

Engaging in discussions with customers to educate and raise awareness of the circular economy and explore circular opportunities together

Customer dialogue, marketing [Textiles]

Upgrade, repair, and maintenance while in-use

Maximise lifetime of products in-use [Textiles]

Designing to reduce waste during production and use

Design out waste [Textiles]

Using waste materials that have been processed and recycled to produce new products within other industries

Using open loop recycled materials [Textiles]

Engaging in discussions with government bodies and policymakers to push for regulations that support the circular economy

Advocacy for circular economy policies [Textiles]

Takeback and return of products from customers after end-of-use

Takeback programmes [Textiles]

Industry peers to industry peer collaboration to create joint value and identify synergies

Industry collaboration [Textiles]

Providing upgrade programmes or upgrade services for products or parts of products

Product upgrade [Textiles]

Give products and parts another life after their end-of-use

Maximise lifetime of products after use [Textiles]

Facilitate discussions and meetings between internal team members to identify circular opportunities

Dialogue with internal stakeholders [Textiles]

Marketplaces or services that enable the second hand sale of own-brand products

Own brand second-hand sale [Textiles]

Open loop high-value mechanical recycling

Using materials that are not considered critical.

Non-critical materials and inputs [Textiles]

Work together throughout the supply chain, internally within organisations and with the public sector and communities to increase transparency and create joint value

Team up to create joint value [Textiles]

Using materials that are not toxic or hazardous.

Non-toxic materials and inputs [Textiles]

Transforming waste products into materials and lower value products within the same industry

Closed loop downcycling [Textiles]

Use digital, online platforms and technologies that provide insights to track and optimise resource use, strengthen connections between supply chain actors, and enable the implementation of circular models

Incorporate digital technology [Textiles]

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration [Textiles]

Connecting products and services into the internet of things to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Internet enabled, connected operations [Textiles]

Enacting measures that optimise material use such as 3D printing, etc.

Material efficiency [Textiles]

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within the same industry

Valorise waste streams - closed loop [Textiles]

Replacing freshwater use with rainwater, fogwater, seawater, etc.

Alternative water use [Textiles]

Using bio-based materials such as bioplastics, mushroom-based materials, etc.

Alternative bio-based materials and inputs [Textiles]

Designing products that are made to last and to ensure longer use

Design for durability [Textiles]

Selling parts of modular products that can be exchanged or replaced

Sale of exchangeable parts [Textiles]

Providing services where customers are charged only when they use it

Payment per use [Textiles]

Consider opportunities to create greater value and align incentives that build on the interaction between products and services

Rethink the business model [Textiles]

Decentralised services that rely on the power of the crowd or the community

Crowd-based services [Textiles]

Working together with industry peers to engage in business activities or exploratory projects that advance the circular economy

Joint industry ventures, projects, pilots [Textiles]

Open loop high-value (semi) chemical recycling

Replace energy sources with less impactful alternatives and enact energy efficiency measures

Regenerative energy [Textiles]

Providing DIY repair kits or spare part programmes for enabling self-repair

Self-repair, spare part service [Textiles]

Activities to clean, decorate, and restore products back to working condition for original or new purposes

Refurbishment, repair [Textiles]

Account for the systems perspective during the design process, to use the right materials, to design for appropriate lifetime and to design for extended future use

Design for the future [Textiles]

Provide guidance or professional training to educate employees to use circular economy principles

Training on the circular economy [Textiles]

Installing sensors to gather data from products and services to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Sensors, monitoring systems [Textiles]

Closed loop high-value mechanical recycling

Recover waste energy or generate fuels and energy from waste streams

Generating energy from waste [Textiles]

Marketplaces or services that enable the second hand sale of products

Second-hand sale, distribution [Textiles]

Energy recovery from waste [Textiles]

Transforming waste products into materials and higher value products within the same industry

Upcycling [Textiles]

Selling high quality, long-lasting products

Sale of durable, long-lasting goods [Textiles]

Designing products to resist damage and wear, and serve a long and useful life.

Design for physical durability [Textiles]

Transforming waste products into materials and lower value products within other industries

Open loop downcycling [Textiles]

Providing products through leasing, rental, or pay-per-use models instead of sales

Leasing, rental, pay per use [Textiles]

Designing products so they produce as little waste as possible during production

Design for minimal waste [Textiles]

Working together with customers to jointly create products fit for them

Co-creation [Textiles]

Employing artificial algorithms and robotics to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Advanced robotics, artificial intelligence [Textiles]

Using waste materials that have been processed and recycled to produce new products within the same industry

Using closed loop recycled materials [Textiles]

Enacting measures that optimise water use

Water efficiency [Textiles]

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within other industries

Valorise waste streams - open loop [Textiles]

Engage with the local community where facilities or offices are located

Community collaboration [Textiles]

Engaging in discussions with industry stakeholders to share circular economy best practices and push the industry towards greater circularity

Guidance, dialogue with industry stakeholders [Textiles]

Deliver products through business models that ensure maximum value

Product business models [Textiles]

Converting fossil fuel based operations to electric

Electrification [Textiles]

Closed loop high-value (semi) chemical recycling

While resources are in-use, maintain, repair and upgrade them to maximise their lifetime and give them a second life through take back strategies when applicable

Stretch the lifetime [Textiles]

Replace freshwater with less impactful alternatives and enact water efficiency measures

Regenerative water [Textiles]

Using materials that can be easily reused or recycled after use

Reusable, recyclable materials and inputs [Textiles]

Textiles Key Elements Framework

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 An action-based framework for apparel brands working towards circular strategies

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This collection has been built by a community of passionate researchers, students, and industry professionals as part of <a href="https://worldcirculartextilesday.com/" target="_blank">World Circular Textiles Day</a> (WCTD). 


World Circular Textiles Day takes place every year on 8th October.  Our vision is to galvanise the collective ambitions and goals of people, organisations and businesses to reach a fully circular textiles world by 2050. Our mission is to provide a framework for circularity stakeholders to develop and deliver a collaborative, evolving roadmap and to chart circularity’s momentum annually from the 8th of October until 2050.

What does fully circular by 2050 mean?
- Shared textile resources, in the form of products and raw materials, are kept in **continual circulation**.
- Virgin resources are **replaced with circular materials**.
- Dignity, equity, and equality for the **people** involved in all parts of the circular value chain.

We need to know where we stand today to chart how to get to 100% Circularity by 2050. What circular activity is currently happening in the textiles and apparel industry, and where in the world is it happening? The WCTD Collection aims to answer this question by building the world’s largest digital library of circular textiles case studies. 

World Circular Textiles Day is proud to be supported by our 2022-23 Circular Hero Partners:
[Lenzing](https://www.lenzing.com/), [Texaid](https://retailsolutions.texaid.com/), [Bank & Vogue](https://www.bankvogue.com/), [Usha yarns limited](https://ushayarns.com/), [The Conduit](https://www.theconduit.com/), and [Asia Pacific Rayon](https://www.aprayon.com/en/)

## Want to contribute to the WCTD Collection? Sign up and add your circular textiles activities.



