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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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Article / Report

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 social fabric of the community and well-being of the individuals and families.

Social 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

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

Producing and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and Services

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

Fashion and Textiles

Providing goods on the Internet, through mail order, or television, or providing goods in stores, including apparel, electronics, furniture, food and drug, etc.

Retail

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

Prioritise regenerative resources

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

Use waste as a resource

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

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

Regenerative materials

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

Valorise waste streams - closed loop

Employ online platforms to connect and improve information sharing between stakeholders

Digital platforms

Using <a href="https://echa.europa.eu/information-on-chemicals" target="_blank">materials that are not toxic or hazardous</a>.

Non-toxic materials and inputs

Using materials that can be easily reused or recycled after use

Reusable, recyclable materials and inputs

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

Using closed loop recycled materials

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

Online platforms

'Inform' increases the overall levels of awareness and builds the necessary skills and knowledge around the circular economy to foster long-term change.

Inform

Circular Economy in school programmes

Data, knowledge & information sharing

Implement innovation programmes

Awareness raising events

Information campaigns

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

VISION:
People are valued and supported in an equitable, socially just and resilient society.

DETAIL:
Imagine a time when…people and communities are at the heart of any sustainable and circular system. The planet thrives, enabling us to survive with balance and abundance. People are no longer passive consumers, but proactive participants. The ‘makers’ who design, build, reprocess and recirculate products throughout the value chain are treated equally and are equitable partners in shaping and benefitting from the system. Textiles/garments can be produced and repurposed locally as well as centrally. A blend of craft methods alongside more automated production provides regionalised, multi-faceted perspectives and fulfilling livelihoods, be they high- or low-tech. Wealth gaps are minimised and dignity, equity, equality is a reality for all.

People and Society

Regenerate strategies phase out hazardous or toxic materials and processes and substitute them with regenerative biomass resources. A circular economy aims to mimic natural cycles—by shifting to more regenerative farming practices, for example—while also maximising the share of circular biomass that enters the economy. Regeneration can happen both at the systems level (by designing regenerative processes) as well as at the product level (by switching synthetic to organic fertilisers, for example).

Regenerate

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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A framework of policy instruments that enabled and encourage the transition to the circular economy

Policy Instruments

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A framework of policy instruments that enable and stimulate the transition to the circular economy

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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 Rana Plaza was a factory complex in Savar, Bangladesh, where more than 5,000 people worked making clothes for some of the biggest global fashion brands and retailers. The victims were mostly young women.
This tragedy was preventable. In the aftermath, survivors told stories of how they noticed cracks in the building and knew the building was hazardous just days before the collapse. Multiple workers told their supervisors that they were afraid to enter the building and continue working. The retails shops and banks on the ground floor shut down their operations, but the demand of an insatiable fashion industry forced garment workers to keep working. The ugly truth is that some of us may have bought and wore the clothes they made.
People had to dig through the rubble looking for clothing labels in order to figure out which brands were sourcing from Rana Plaza. In some cases, it took weeks for brands to determine why their labels were found in the ruins and what sort of purchasing agreements they had with those suppliers. The culpable brands weren’t limited to fast fashion retailers but included mid-priced brands too.
This is because the vast majority of today’s fashion brands and retailers do not own their manufacturing facilities. Fashion supply chains are highly globalised, complex and opaque. Business relationships are often very murky and subcontracting is common. This lack of transparency costs lives.
The reality is that our clothes have gone on a long journey before they reach stores and webshops, passing through the hands of cotton farmers, spinners, weavers, dyers, sewers and many more. 

   Posted in Fashion   desi123  March 14, 2021  Leave a comment     
Of late, several celebrities have come forward to underline the importance of sustainable fashion. Vidya Balan amplified the noise during promotions of Shakuntala Devi. And now, there is an unexpected entrant to the crowd: Boney Kapoor. The producer was recently spotted at the screening of daughter Janhvi Kapoor’s film Roohi, and what caught our attention was his mask. While seeing one wearing it might make for a common sight, what made Kapoor stand out was the fact his was made from a kurta! And in case you are wondering how we know that — well, it was written on it.


In the pictures, he can be seen in his signature loose white kurta and matching trousers. His mask, too, was matching and on it was written, “I used to be a kurta”. With this, the 65-year-old producer might have just won the sustainability game.
Over the years, several designers have batted for the need to transition to sustainable fashion. In an interview with indianexpress.com, designer Masaba Gupta had stated: “Sustainability will become a big, big topic and people and brands will start buying and investing in things that are more sustainable, benefit the environment and are better for them as well.”
This has exploded in a big way during the pandemic, as many made and are making masks out of their old, clean clothes. In a video, Balan had shown how to convert an old blouse into a mask. “Ek purani sari ko kaat kar bahut saare masks ban sakte hain,” she had written.


For more lifestyle news, follow us: Twitter: lifestyle_ie | Facebook: IE Lifestyle | Instagram: ie_lifestyle     Related Articles 

The apparel industry accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions.The global fashion industry is generating a lot of greenhouse gases due to the energy used during its production, manufacturing, and transportation of the million garments purchased each year.Synthetic fibers (polyester, acrylic, nylon, etc.), used in the majority of our clothes, are made from fossil fuel, making production much more energy-intensive than with natural fibers.Most of our clothes are produced in China, Bangladesh, or India, countries essentially powered by coal. This is the dirtiest type of energy in terms of carbon emissions.  Also, according to James Conca from FORBES: " Cheap synthetic fibers also emit gases like N2O, which is 300 times more damaging than CO2."What can we do about it? 

 The fashion industry is one of the key consumers of natural resources such as water and energy. This widespread consumption due to fast fashion has devastating impacts on people and the planet. It is now more urgent than ever to shift from a linear – take, make, use, dispose – model to a circular model or circular economy where waste and pollution are designed out, products and materials are kept in use longer, and natural systems can regenerate. Mukul Agrawal, Chief Sustainability Officer, Birla Cellulose, shares his view on circular textiles and how brand Liva Reviva incorporates them in their products. 
Tell us about circular textiles and their importance for the planet and the industry?
An estimated 110 million tons of material is used in the fashion industry annually and more than 90 million tons of fashion waste goes to landfill and incineration every year. As an estimate, only 1% of the material is recycled today. This widespread consumption due to fast fashion has devastating impacts on people and the planet, including its biodiversity. It is now more urgent than ever to shift from linear – take, make, use, dispose – model to a circular model or circular economy where waste and pollution are designed out, products and materials are kept in use for longer, and natural systems can regenerate.
Polyester dominates the industry with 65% share in the material basket and polyester garments cannot be recycled due to technological limitations. Also, it is not biodegradable at the end of life, creating significant issues of land and water pollution when leaked to environment. Cotton is about 25% an agricultural fibre. Man-made cellulosic fibres (MMCF) (viscose, lyocell, modal) constitute of 8% of total fibre basket.
The current innovations are now making it possible for cotton waste to be recycled into viscose and lyocell processes. The
products like Liva Reviva use industrial cotton waste as feedstock. The mechanical recycling of fabrics has also started; however, it has limitations in quality of fabric and fibre that can be produced using this process. The recycling industry is at a nascent stage and has huge opportunity to rapidly grow if brands start consuming circular materials in larger quantities.
Transitioning to a circular economy is a win-win proposition – reducing pressure on natural resources while reducing waste
going to landfill and incineration.
How does Liva Reviva incorporate circular textiles in its products? Please elaborate on the entire process, right from product design.
Responsibly produced MMCFs have emerged as one of the most sustainable fibre choices due to their sustainability credentials. MMCFs are made from natural and renewable wood sourced from sustainably managed forests and are made using the closed-loop process, which has a much lower environmental impact and compared to other fibres, MMCFs are biodegradable in soil, water and marine environment and are easily compostable at the end of life.
With the advancement of technology, the waste cotton from pre- and post-consumer waste can now be recycled back into the viscose fibre which can replace use of virgin wood-based pulp, thus providing a great potential of making a huge shift from a linear business model to a circular business model.
Birla Cellulose has developed an innovative in-house proprietary technology for recycling pre-consumer cotton waste to fresh viscose fibres, akin to regular fibres and launched commercially as “Liva Reviva” with 20% to 30% feedstock as pre- consumer waste in 2020. The recycled fibre Liva Reviva is RCS (Recycled Claim Standard) certified.
We strongly believe that the development of Next Generation solutions and a Circular Business Model will require like- minded organisations to work together and facilitate & support each other in this journey.
The Liva Reviva production also involves development of reverse logistics for waste collection and we have worked with our
value chain partners and some leading brands to establish the waste supply networks that collect the industrial cotton waste, cleaning and segregating the waste and transporting it to our facilities for recycling. It is important that the reverse logistics of waste collection is established as currently this waste is going to incineration or downcycling.
Birla Cellulose is aggressively working on scaling the next generation fibres to a level of 100,000 tons by 2024 and increasing the recycled content and increased use of post-consumer waste and is committed to accelerate innovations that are aligned with UN SDGs 2030.
Can you quantify the positive impact that Liva Reviva can create on the environment through this process?
Circular fibres such as Liva Reviva have several environmental benefits such as reduced waste, lower water &amp; chemical use,
and energy consumption while saving forests, preventing carbon emissions, and protecting the planet. Currently, 90 million tons of waste is going to landfill and only 1-2 % is being recycled. So there is an enormous potential to scale up recycling in the textile industry.
When we scale the recycling of waste, it reduces the pressure on fresh raw material, wood-based pulp, which is already a stressed commodity. Sustainably managed forests are limited and sustainably sourced wood has limited availability. The higher recycling of cotton would have a positive impact on this in longer term as we scale up Liva Reviva.
Liva Reviva has several ecological benefits in addition to circularity; it has lower water consumption and lower GHG emissions as compared to generic viscose based on Higg MSI tool provided by SAC. In addition to that, it consumes very low water compared to other fibres like cotton and conventional viscose.
Sustainably produced MMCFs from sustainably-sourced wood are one of the most versatile fibres and best placed due to their sustainability credentials such as being made using closed-loop technologies with low environmental impact and very low emissions; applying principles of Circular Economy thereby minimising the use of natural resources.
Brands and consumers looking for more sustainable fibre and fibres like Liva Reviva are apt solution. These sustainable fibres are versatile and are now preferred over other fibres. Moreover, fossil based fibres are generating microfibres which are leading to microfibre pollution and harming the marine biodiversity as these fibres takes centuries to degrade. MMCF are biodegradable in a very short span of time (in a few weeks) and also do not have any harmful impact on soil, marine and water environment.
Please elaborate on Liva Reviva garments that incorporate circular textiles.
The brands have started to use the Liva Reviva fibres in their collections and many brands are working on new collections
and designs. These are focused on several segments such as ladies’ wear, kids’ wear, youth and others. Some of the renowned international and domestic brands use Liva Reviva for their collection.
How do you market the importance of fashion made using circular textiles to customers?
Today, the world is looking for solutions to the fashion industry’s problems of environmental pollution, and sustainably produced MMCF provides a great solution and choice for a more sustainable fashion. In the western part of the world, a part of the demand of sustainable fibre is already being driven by consumers who are looking for more sustainable material choices and also the recycling industry is growing faster including re-commerce, take-back programmes, reuse of garments and recycling of garments.
Our role is to create awareness among the consumers on negative aspects of fast fashion and to increase their knowledge
on environmental impacts created by the increasing consumption of garments. The amount of microplastics in the ocean today is also causing great degree of concern in the consumers and they are switching to natural and bio-degradable materials like cellulosic fibres from synthetic fibres like polyester, etc. We also work closely with brand partners to build communication programmes where the benefits of recycled fibre-based garments can be communicated to end consumers in an easy, accurate and meaningful way. 

   



  A brand's craftsman at work | Facebook File photo  
Sustainability is practiced in India in most households. To cite an example, a T-shirt in an Indian household undergoes a transformation from being a wearable garment to a dustcloth as it ‘ages’. But with headlines like ‘Delhi heat Breaks 72- Year Record as Temperatures soar in Early April’ and ‘Rising seas to wipe out much of Mumbai by 2050’, Gen Z has to step out of their classrooms or workplaces with placards, undertake plantation drives, establish environment clubs, and most importantly, switch their lifestyle choices.  While most of the consumers belonging to this generation refuse to have an ‘I want it and I got it’ attitude before purchasing any product,  luxury brands too should devise ways of promoting sustainable fashion to lure their customers.
H&M recently introduced a biodegradable and sustainable line of baby clothing. The collection is made using materials free of chemicals that are harmful to humans and the environment. The items are produced with 100% recycled water and renewable energy. H&M’s head said, “The company is in a position to enable big changes in the fashion industry and we hope to be a leader in sustainability and keep clothes out of landfills.” Automobile giant Hyundai too launched an annual fashion collection made of discarded vehicle materials. To create these fashion items, Hyundai and its partners used leftover materials from car manufacturing such as airbags and seatbelts. Additionally, eco-friendly materials incorporated into Hyundai Ioniq 5 such as Bio PET and recycled fibers were also used in enhancing the wearability of fashion items.
Such initiatives make me happy as our generation is not usually considered change-makers. But we are influencing major brand strategies with our conscious choices and consumption. However, the only way forward if we are going to improve the
the environment is to get everybody involved. Also read: Sweatshops behind Sarojini: Masterjis and women who run Delhi’s ‘pocket-friendly’ fashion The fight is not over
Hiring women at low wages, no job security, and exploiting child labor our generation has been and is still fighting against such evils practiced behind the curtains. We demand
employee and consumer safety along with sustainable products. Thus, many brands have even collaborated to promote girl-child education like the collaboration between Sabyasachi and Starbucks. While the trend of influencer ‘wave’  has its drawbacks, we have also learned various ways of styling our mundane clothes and transforming them into stylish looks. I am elated to witness the phenomenon of ‘from take make dump’ to ‘take make remake’ and I strongly believe the answer lies not in pointing fingers but in providing alternatives or solutions. The youth holds immense potential to bring positive change in the desired direction with their innovative ideas and progressive approach.
The author is a student at Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, New Delhi. Views are personal.
 
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Liva Reviva

Have you ever wondered what came first: The desire for trendy clothes at an inexpensive rate or the industry convincing us that we are behind trends?Fast-Fashion is a marketing strategy to meet the ever-changing trends where high volumes of apparel are produced with low-quality materials and sold at a reasonable price, making people buy more.