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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.

World Circular Textiles Day

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Business case

Impact on increased knowledge and understanding as a result of the case study

Increase Awareness

Impact on the ease of innovation, and facilitating uptake of innovations

Innovation

Scalability

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Reduced use and withdrawal of water and rate of recycling and reuse of water

Save Water (SDG6)

Reduced use of fossil fuel energy sources and/or increased use of renewable energy

Reduce Energy Consumption

Producing textile and leather products and processing them into apparel and accessories

Fashion and Textiles

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

Use waste as a resource

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

Valorise waste streams - closed loop

VISION:
Raw materials are renewable, recyclable and safe, kept in continual circulation.

DETAIL:
Imagine a time when…the raw materials that are used to make things are sourced from existing products and regenerative agriculture, via carbon negative and climate neutral processes. Biodegradable raw materials are used for products with biodegradable end routes. Toxic chemicals have been washed out of the global materials pool, disposed of safely and replaced with beneficial alternatives. Virgin fibres made from fossil fuels have been banned, while secondary synthetic fibres, derived from what was already in the system, are kept in constant circulation as a resource. Circularity accounting methods, built on science-based metrics, help to manage a balanced system of resources, across all industries, and in line with the planet’s environmental limits.

Raw Materials and Planetary Boundaries

VISION:
Products and services are designed for multiple use and material value retention, with maximum positive impact.

DETAIL: 
Imagine a time when…products flow via optimal collection and distribution streams into reusable and repairable product platforms. Reuse and access models are dominant, and products are designed for multiple recirculation before biodegrading (if designed to do so), or being broken down into reusable raw materials for production. People only consume what they need. Production and consumption wastes have been fully eliminated and multifunctional, season-less and timeless fashions are the norm, yet still fulfil our human need for expression and creativity without constraint. All business models, organisations, governments and citizens play a role in maintaining a healthy, functioning circular ecosystem.

Products and Services

Cycle strategies aim to cycle and reuse materials at their highest value: they maximise the volume of secondary materials re-entering the economy, ultimately minimising the need for virgin material inputs and therefore also narrowing flows. Of course, virgin materials will always be needed to a degree: all materials degrade and can’t be cycled infinitely, use energy, and require blending with virgin materials to maintain strength and functionality.

Cycle

Impacts

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Industries

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The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

It is 2050.  Full systems change has taken place. This wouldn’t have been possible without the immediate action and radical steps taken from 2020 onwards. Many targets had to be identified in the early 2020s and achieved by 2030 to ensure that the 2050 goal happened in full. A sense of urgency, turbo stakeholder collaboration, supportive government regulation and clear, data driven targets enabled the mindsets and systems change needed to transform to a fully circular textiles ecosystem.

A circular economics model underpins what we have created. It reflects and supports a living organism made up of makers, users and restorers, interacting across vibrant and interconnected networks. Checks and balances, alongside transparency and accountability, ensure a healthy system. Financial, environmental, and social metrics have the purpose of serving communities and the planet. There is shared ownership of profit and loss – across all three metrics – throughout the value chain.

This is what we’ve achieved over the last 30 years:

WCTD Themes

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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We use textile waste as a raw material resource, diverting it from landfill and incineration. We become less dependent on virgin materials, we don’t use water or chemicals and we reduce our CO2 emissions and energy usage.


Spain

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Recover™ is a leading material sciences company and global producer of low-impact, high-quality recycled cotton fiber and cotton fiber blends.

Recover™

Recover™ is a leading material sciences company and global producer of low-impact, high-quality recycled cotton fiber, and cotton fiber blends. Despite the barriers to scalability in the circular textile industry, Recover™ is innovating and scaling its production of recycled cotton fiber, to achieve circular fashion for all.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Recover™: the recycled cotton manufacturer's scaling pre- and post-consumer waste recycling.

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within other industries

Valorise waste streams - open loop

  Recover™ is the lowest impact recycled cotton fiber in the global market.   1 kg of Recover™ recycled cotton saves up:     Water   14 740 litres (3 894 US gallons)   Energy   CO2 emissions     Pollutants   Land use   

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Spanish company, Recover, is a leading material sciences company and global producer of low-impact, high-quality recycled cotton fibre and cotton fibre blends that transform post-industrial and post-consumer cotton waste. Using mechanical processes, the fibres are shredded back into maximum quality fibre, thereby offering a solution to the escalating problem of textile waste, which is usually incinerated or landfilled, leading to a loss of valuable resources while causing significant environmental damage.

Recover(TM) offers handcrafted recycled cotton fibre

Impact on the availability of resources as well as their effect on living organisms, ecosystems, and components of the environment.

Ecological Impact

Impacts on the financial condition of a company, as well as the the economicconditions of its stakeholders and on economic systems at local, national, andglobal levels.

Economic Impact

Producing and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and Services

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

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

Designing to enable multiple uses and lifecycles of a product and its materials

Design for cyclability

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

Industry collaboration

Transforming waste products, materials for reuse within the same industry

Closed loop upcycling

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

Using closed loop recycled materials

Designing products to remove any barriers to recycling and enable easy recyclability

Design for recycling

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

Cross-industry projects, pilots

Slow strategies aim to keep materials in use for as long as possible, for example through design for durability and repairability. A more circular economy is also a slower one: materials, components, and products—and even buildings and infrastructure—that we lock in stocks are made to last. This will lower material demand in the long run, in essence also serving to narrow resource flows.

Slow

Archetypes

CE Materials

Materials

Nace Sectors

Topics

Urban Opportunities

Whilst no two countries are the same, there are still obvious similarities between some of them, with discernible development patterns and parallels in evidence. Common problems and shared solutions help place unique country identities and individual issues in context.

Whilst this classification is far from clear-cut and exhibits some overlap, it does underline how the discourse on transitioning to a circular economy needs to account for both differences and commonalities, if we are to arrive at a more strategic and instructive analysis. It also allows to highlight a set of key themes that are likely to be central to the countries that fall under the respective profiles. 

Country profiles (Build, Grow, Shift)

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A framework to distinguish between different country profiles and their circular transition needs.

The Circular City Actions Framework provides urban changemakers with five complementary strategies they can use to start working towards a more circular system. 

The framework is action-based to provide users with concrete strategic directions and showcase the desired outcomes of each strategy. 
The framework consists of five complementary **strategies**, under which **sub-strategies** provide further detail. Finally, each sub-strategy consists of a diversity of tangible **solutions** which are framed in relation to key thematic areas. 

Note: solutions are currently focused on:
- 🍏 **Food systems**
- 🏢  **Built environment**
- 👕📱  **Consumer goods**
- ⚡ **Energy Systems**
- 🚌 **Mobility Systems**
- 💧 **Water Systems**

More thematic areas are coming soon...

'Click through each of the five strategy cards below to explore the framework and circular economy case studies in more depth!'



This framework was developed in collaboration with ICLEI, Metabolic and Ellen MacArthur Foundation with support from the MAVA Foundation. Read more about it [here]( https://circulars.iclei.org/action-framework/). 



Circular City Actions Framework

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An action-based framework for local governments working towards circular cities

Thematic Areas

City Stakeholders

Test Framework

Challenges

Based on the ongoing ISO standardisation process, a taxonomy has been defined under which to cluster indicators to measure circularity. 

ISO Taxonomy

If managed well, the transition to the circular economy will have multiple benefits for the labour market, including the opening up of job opportunities, raising job standards and reducing inequalities through a global redistribution of value. But a positive transition to circularity for work and workers must be underpinned by three pillars: upskilling the workforce, quality of work and inclusive job opportunities. Find out more and explore cases that illustrate these pillars below.

Circular Jobs Initiative Pillars

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A positive transition to circularity for work and workers must be underpinned by three core pillars.

This is a survey that dives into understanding the policy environment around specific circular solutions. 

The survey is divided into five sections, based on the five key elements of the Circular Cities Action Framework. 
Each section asks 2-3 questions to explore which policies may or may not be present within your city to support a transition towards a circular economy. 

You are not alone! Each question provides some practical examples from cities around the world that have adopted a certain policy to support their transition. This can help to compare with your city - is your city doing something similar?

The survey answers should be based on your current knowledge, and not illicit additional research - ! Please make use of the Not sure option as appropriate.


Ganbatte Cities Policy Tracker [Food]

Ganbatte Cities - Policy tracker policy instruments

Policy Tracker - TEST

  Recover™ produces high-quality recycled cotton fiber at a low environmental cost.   1 kg (1 kg = 2.2 lb) of Recover™ recycled cotton saves up:     Water   14 740 litres (3 894 US gallons)   Energy   CO2 emissions     Pollutants   Land use   

As the fashion industry chases sustainable change, circularity should be a prime priority. By using recycled rather than conventional materials, brands can improve fashion’s environmental profile. Recover, a producer of fibers using recycled cotton, has been supporting the industry in the shift from virgin to circular materials, and a recently closed $100 million minority equity capital investment will enable it to further scale up its circular solutions. The investment was led by the Sustainability Investing business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which invested along with Recover’s majority shareholder Story3 Capital Partners. Sources close to the transaction said the deal values Recover at more than $1 billion. The family-owned materials science company has been in the business for over 70 years. Now led by the fourth generation of the Ferre family, Recover has spent decades honing its proprietary mechanical textile recycling process to create longer-staple clean cotton at a competitive cost.
As part of the investment deal, Letitia Webster, head of sustainability for private investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, will be joining Recover’s board of directors. “Recover is a leading disruptor in the apparel and textiles space with much-needed sustainable solutions grounded in materials science,” she said. “We’re excited to invest in Recover’s growth to accelerate scaled production and the continued development of its technologies.” According to Story3 Capital Partners’ managing partner Peter Comisar, part of why his firm and Goldman Sachs are investing “significant capital” in Recover is the scalability of its solutions. “If we’re going to solve this problem, it’s got to be solved at scale. Otherwise you’re making no impact,” Ben Malka, operating partner at Story3 Capital Partners and executive chairman of Recover, told Sourcing Journal.
Recover’s fibers have been used by major brands and retailers including Primark, Inditex, C&A, Revolve and Lands’ End. “What the brands and retailers are looking for, we believe, is a partner who has the credibility, authenticity, transparency, governance and principles that they can work with across the globe and across their supply chain,” Comisar said. As Recover expands, he sees it driving more brands to circular solutions, creating a bigger “call to action” for the industry. There is still much room to grow; only 7 percent of fashion executives in a recent Kearney survey said they currently have an “extensive” use of recycled materials.
“For change to happen at scale across the fashion industry, we need partnership and collaboration with innovators like Recover,” said Lynne Walker, director of Primark Cares at Primark. “As we increase the use of Recover’s recycled cotton fiber in Primark products, this investment will enable us to meet our pledge to make more sustainable fashion affordable to millions of customers.”

With this additional capital, Recover is planning to grow its production capacity and geographic footprint, targeting major apparel production areas. The Spain-based manufacturer currently has production hubs in Spain, Pakistan and Bangladesh, it will soon be opening a hub in Vietnam, and it plans to open facilities in Central America, Brazil, Turkey and India in the future. Speaking of the strategy of where to locate these facilities, Comisar said, “We believe from a carbon footprint perspective…we need to be close to where the waste is produced.”
Recover intends to expand its annual output of recycled cotton fiber from its current 30,000 metric tons (30 million kilograms) to 350,000 metric tons by 2026. A life cycle assessment verified by Aitex, Universitat de València and UNESCO found that this goal volume of recycled cotton would save 5 trillion liters of water each year.
Another investment area for Recover is innovation, including efforts to further optimize its end products so they are closer in line with conventional cotton. The company also plans to expand its waste streams, including utilizing more post-consumer waste.
Recover has been in textile recycling for decades, but around 2018, industry interest in circularity picked up. “[Brands and retailers] understood that there was…a real solution for them to apply for circularity and to be much more sustainable,” said Recover CEO Alfredo Ferre. “The problem we had was just the volume, that we were so small that we only could do some capsule programs with some of these brands and retailers.” Story3 acquired Recover in 2020 and helped it grow its volumes.
On the consumer level, circularity and sustainability are growing purchase drivers. A 2021 McKinsey study of California-based consumers found that 54 percent anticipate buying more recycled apparel. “Millennial and Gen Z prefer and will opt for a sustainable anchored product as opposed to a non-sustainable anchored product,” Comisar said.
Recover sees the opportunity to become a “household” material or ingredient brand that consumers can trust. A number of Recover’s partners have begun co-branding garments with Recover hangtags to tell a sustainability story to the consumer. “To give the consumer the ability to be part of the solution, and to empower them to be part of the solution, I think is very important,” Malka said.

Looking ahead, Recover plans to keep innovating as well as collaborating with governments and NGOs to effect change. “The addressable market is so large, there’s so much to do,” Malka said. “We’re at the beginning of this.”


  We have already crossed several planetary boundaries and are rapidly approaching others. Each year, we produce more than 100 billion garments, while we dispose over 48 million tons of clothing of which 73% goes straight to landfill or incineration. With global fashion consumption projected to grow 62% from 2015 to 2030, so will its associated environmental footprint. At the same time, the fashion industry needs to reduce its emissions with 50% by 2030 to align with the 1.5-degree pathway. This means there is a huge gap to close. Accelerated adoption of recycled cotton by the industry is one of the key strategies that can be applied to achieve this ambitious target.
References:
Ellen MacArthur Foundation, A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning fashion’s future, 2017.
Global Fashion Agenda and BCG, Pulse of the Fashion Industry, 2017
McKinsey & Company and Global Fashion Agenda, Fashion on Climate, 2020  

 We offer best in class, high-quality, low-impact recycled fiber for fashion, accessories and home textiles. Art and science combined to create the longest fiber output and maximize the fiber quality.  

 Textile waste is typically the material that becomes unusable or worthless after the end of production or use of any textile product. But at Recover™, we don’t see waste, we see circular solutions. Textile waste is our raw material, and we use it to create our Recover™ recycled fibers that can be incorporated back into textile production, allowing the industry to move towards a closed-loop model.                    

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Goldman Sachs

Recover, a producer of fibers using recycled cotton, has been supporting the industry in the shift from virgin to circular materials. Earlier in 2022, the company recently closed $100 million minority equity capital investment, which will enable it to further scale up its circular solutions. The investment was led by the Sustainability Investing business within&nbsp;Goldman Sachs&nbsp;Asset Management, which invested along with Recover’s majority shareholder&nbsp;Story3 Capital Partners. Sources close to the transaction said the deal values Recover at more than $1 billion.

Recycled fibers company Recover attracts Goldman-Led $100 Million Investment

The Recover Upcycled Textile System regenerates cotton fiber from old clothing and scraps from the cutting room floor. Recover cotton is produced using none of the water and toxic chemicals required for conventional cotton fiber. Recover has been recycling post-industrial clipping waste for over 70 years, however this recovery stream accounts for only a fraction of overall textile waste. Four generations of research and development in textile recycling has led to some impressive technical advances that make the quality of Recover’s upcycled yarn comparable to virgin, at a competitive price and with a fraction of the environmental impact.

Recycling textile waste into yarn

Recover-E offers a track and trace system that provides an overview of ICT
equipment and its component parts at every stage of the chain from initial
purchase to end-of-life. Customers can access the system to record and
maintain up-to-date information on all their ICT equipment as it passes
through the purchase and use phases. The track and trace system can be used to
manage logistics, certify data wiping, check equipment and repairs, as well as
identify and replace missing or damaged parts. The system database is managed
by Recover-E Foundation, a body which consolidates and prepares the
information for annual reports to stakeholders and details the ICT equipment
re-use, recycling and financial values.

 

Read more at:

<http://recover-e.nl/>