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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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Starter Kit collection

Business case

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

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

Innovation

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)

Extracting resources and processing them to produce materials for use bysociety

Materials and Fuels

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

Producing basic and specialty chemicals, inks, agricultural chemical such as fertilisers and pesticides, plastics including packaging, and rubber

Chemical and Plastic

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

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

Design for cyclability

Designing products that can easily breakdown and degrade in the environment

Design for bio-degradability

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

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

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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      Written by Chris Remington	    Published: 18 March 2022        WASHINGTON – Conservation X Labs (CXL) has announced the five winners of its Microfiber Innovation Challenge, who’ll share a prize of US$650,000 to help scale their solutions to widespread pollution. Launched in January of last year, with support from sportswear firm Under Armour, surf wear brand Finisterre and materials manufacturer Bolt Threads, as well as industry NGOs Fashion for Good, Canopy and the Microfibre Consortium, the challenge has helped identify the most promising and scalable technologies. “These five worthy winners share a revolutionary potential to protect planetary health and stop the harm from microplastic pollution on ecosystems and human health,” said Alex Dehgan, CEO of Conservation X Labs. “These tiny plastics are found in our drinking water, the food we eat and even the air we breathe.” Log in or subscribe to see this content   

New York – Recent trends in the development of fibers, yarns and fabric are pointing toward reducing carbon footprints, cutting waste and improving biodegradability. In her presentation at HTT’s virtual Material Changes conference last month, “The Fibers of Tomorrow…Today,” Dr. Kavita Mathur presented a roster of products already available for use in the textiles industry. The focus of research and development for universities and the industry includes moving away from textiles that are Non-renewable and don’t biodegrade, addressing microplastic pollution, reworking carbon-intensive production processes and reducing toxic chemical effluents as well as water and energy use. “The textiles industry is one of the largest contributors to harmful environmental impacts and generating waste in the ecosystem,” said Mathur, who is associate professor of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management at NC State University. Synthetics continue to account for a significant portion of global fiber production: Polyester, 57.7%
Cotton, 25.7%
Man-made cellulosics, 7.1%
Other plant-based fibers, 6.5%
Other synthetics, 6.4%
Polyamide, 5.6%
Wool/down/silk, roughly 1.6%
Within the polyester segment, only about 14% consists of recycled poly, she noted.  “A very small percentage was bio-based, particularly corn-based polyester.” Mathur offered up a menu of innovative products currently in the pipeline. Cafe is a sustainable technology made from used coffee grounds that accelerates drying by pulling moisture away from the skin. It can be used with virgin fiber or recycled poly as well as in printing and finishing.
Umrofil is a bionic fiber technology ingredients include collagen peptide amino acid from recycled fish and viscose. It is 100% biodegradable and provides moisture control for the skin.
Lenzing’s range of environmentally friendly wood-pulped based fibers include Refibra, which involves upcycling cotton scraps; and EcoVera, viscose fibers are derived from sustainable wood and pulp, coming from certified and controlled sources.
Sonora is an eco-efficient performance fiber from DuPont made from renewable, plant-based ingredients.
Q-Nova from Fulgar is an environmentally sustainable nylon 6.6 fiber obtained from regenerated raw materials and which meets given traceability requirements.
Aquafil is a solution dyed nylon 6 fiber made from 100% regenerated nylon that ensures stain protection without any topical treatment.
com provides fibers made from coastal and marine recycled plastic textiles.
Seaqual yarn is made of 100% post-consumer recycled polyester containing marine plastic.
Ciclo is an upstream solution for microfiber pollution & unrecycled synthetic textiles.
Infinited Fiber Company has created a technology that allows textile waste to be recycled multiple times.
Biofuze is a polyester yarn that accelerates biodegradation in both landfills and oceans.
Mango Materials is a renewable bioproducts company offering biodegradable PHA pellets.
Mathur also noted advances in sustainable dying process engineered by Karlmayer, Archroma and Cottonworks as well as Clariant, Recycrom and Garmon.  Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Marks shares news and views from around the home textiles marketplace. 

         Mango Materials one of five winners for Microfiber Innovation Challenge   Mango Materials was recently announced as one of the five winners of the Microfiber Innovation Challenge. Sponsored by Conservation X Labs (CXL), the challenge sought innovations from around the world that would prevent shedding of microfibers into water systems when fabrics are washed.Check out the articles below to learn more about Mango Materials and the […]    ConservationXLabs ecotextiles methane             Molly interviewed by AZO Cleantech as part of International Day of Women and Girls in Science   In an interview conducted by Laura Thomson, several women were featured who are driving innovation in the Clean Technology Sector. Click here to read all of the interviews, including the one with our CEO, Molly Morse.            Biomarket Insights discusses how the bio-based industry is surviving the pandemic   In a recent blog post by Biomarket Insights, Liz Gyekye looks at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic throughout the biobased sector. The post describes how companies are scaling during this unusual time, along with some of the challenges that are faced. To read the entire article, including a quote from Mango Materials CEO, Molly […]    bio-based biomarket Biomarket Insights             Darigold features Mango Materials in a recent blog post   Jaclyn Krymowski from “The Daily Churn” recently wrote a blog post about Mango Materials methane to biodegradable plastic technology. The post includes a background on the PHA technology, along with how it can be implemented on dairy farms across the country. To read this post and more from The Daily Churn, click here.    biodegradable California dairy farms         Keep Reading       
     PHA polyhydroxyalkanoate methane biodegradable +281 More     

San Francisco

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Mango Materials is a renewable bioproducts company located in the San Francisco Bay Area that strives to be the global leader in the bio-manufacturing revolution.

Mango Materials

<p>Mango Materials is leading the bio-industrial revolution by converting abundant methane gas into biodegradable materials i.e. PHA. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are&nbsp;degradable, biocompatible, thermoplastic polyesters derived from microorganisms, used as a reserve of carbon and energy. Mango Materials’ core fermentation technology involves the production of a naturally occurring biopolymer from waste biogas (methane).</p>