Leading Circular: Pathways for Evolving Apparel and Textile Businesses from Linear to Circular

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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

Direct and indirect effects that increase revenues or the potential for new revenues, for example from new products, customer segments, partnerships or business models

Revenue Potential

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

Innovation

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)

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

Fashion and Textiles

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

Rethink the business model

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

Using materials that can be easily reused or recycled after use

Reusable, recyclable materials and inputs

Providing repair services or maintenance services for products or parts

Product maintenance, repair

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

Product upgrade

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

Own brand second-hand sale

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

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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                                                                                           Quality down filling is a precious resource - one that should never end up in a landfill! But what happens to the down in damaged jackets or sleeping bags? At Tersus, we receive these end-of-life garments from our brand partners to be re-processed and reused.We gently extract the down through a proprietary extraction process, separate it by loft/fill power and species, and clean the material with Tersus’ CO2 technology, restoring the loft and bringing it back to like-new condition. We then offer the 100% recycled down back to the supply chain as raw material to create a truly circular garment.Down recycling is just one of the ways we’re closing the loop in textile circularity. Learn more about how we can help your brand move towards circularity.     The textile industry is one of the largest water-polluting industries in the global economy. Enter Tersus Solutions, a waterless and dryerless cleaning technology for textiles and raw fiber. Utilizing liquid carbon dioxide, we deliver a better-performing, longer lasting garment while simultaneously reducing the environmental footprint of the textile industry.        In 2020, Tersus technology saved 386,000 gallons of water and 185,000 kWh of energy.         650,000 pounds of clothing kept from the landfill annually.         127 tons of carbon emissions saved in 2019 alone.      Born out of the vision of a world where no textile or piece of apparel ends up in the landfill, The Renewal Workshop’s key purpose is finding the right home for unwanted apparel. The best environmental impact is to get that product back out into use as it was originally designed for, in a clean-as-new quality without water. That’s where Tersus comes in. Worn Wear by Patagonia is a set of tools to help customers partner with Patagonia to take mutual responsibility to extend the life of the products Patagonia makes and customers purchase. A like-minded Tersus partner, this program provides significant resources for responsible care, repair, reuse and resale, and recycling at the end of a garment’s life.The North Face Renewed is a collection of clothing refurbished to Like-New condition. Like our other brand partners, The North Face Renewed is investing in a circular economy, providing a quality product that, when treated correctly, can have a drastically extended life through a re-commerce platform. Read how they utilize Tersus’ innovative waterless cleaning process to extend the useful life of their re-commerce items.    

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Oregon

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The Renewal Workshop

The Renewal Workshop presents tested pathways to bring circular practices inside of your company in ways that align with your culture and business priorities.

Leading Circular: Pathways for Evolving Apparel and Textile Businesses from Linear to Circular.

Business case

Impact on the quantity or quality of jobs, and shifts in the labour market

Jobs

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

Retail

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

Design for minimal waste

Designing products so they use as little materials, water, energy, etc. as possible during use

Design for resource efficiency

Designing products so they are able to be easily repaired

Design for repair

 Announcing a partnership with The Renewal Project today – Earth Day – Kathmandu will collaborate on a circular mapping project with the aim to provide a solution for consumers via a renewal and re-commerce program in the future. 
The partnership is the first of its kind in Australia and New Zealand to address textile waste in this way, with an aim to reduce the 23 kgs per person (on average) of textiles waste that is currently added to landfill every year.
Kathmandu CEO Reuben Casey said the partnership forms part of the brand's overall sustainability mission. 
"We are thrilled to be partnering with Renewal Workshop to work together to do our part in reducing textile waste, and to be the first of hopefully many businesses in Australia and New Zealand to work towards circularity. "This partnership is a significant first step towards achieving our 2025 sustainability goal of integrating circular economy principals into our business operations," he said. 
The Renewal Workshop co-founder Nicole Bassett stressed the importance of collaboration when it comes to creating change. 
"As a business who relies on collaborative and progressive brand partners as well as a strong shared commitment to sustainability, we can’t think of a better partner than Kathmandu to explore the potential of circular practices through our Circular Mapping process," she said. 


 CHRISTCHURCH – Outdoor apparel brand Kathmandu has partnered with circular business The Renewal Workshop to kick-off a new circular mapping project across Australia and New Zealand.    The pair hope to establish renewal and recommerce programmes in the countries going forward, but first must garner the support of consumers if they’re to tap into meaningful volumes of unwanted stock.    Kathmandu CEO, Reuben Casey, said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Renewal Workshop to work together to do our part in reducing textile waste, and to be the first of hopefully many businesses in Australia and New Zealand to work towards circularity.”   Log in or subscribe to see this content  

Australia

New Zealand

New Zealand and Australian Outdoorwear apparel brand


Kathmandu

Kathmandu announces its partnership with The Renewal Workshop, the leading provider of circular solutions for apparel and textile brands. It is the first of its kind in Australia and New Zealand to address textile waste in this way, aiming to provide solutions for their customers to reduce the 23 kg per person (on average) of textile waste currently added to landfills every year. New Zealand-based outdoor apparel brand Kathmandu has partnered with The Renewal Workshop, a leading provider of circular solutions, to kickstart a circular mapping project to provide renewal and re-commerce programs to its customers in the future. The brand has also urged fashion businesses across Australia to join them in reducing textile waste. "We are thrilled to be partnering with The Renewal Workshop to work together to do our part in reducing textile waste, and to be the first of hopefully many businesses in Australia and New Zealand to work towards circularity." According to Australian media reports, this partnership is a significant first step towards achieving our 2025 sustainability goal of integrating circular economy principles into our business operations, "said Reuben Casey, CEO of Kathmandu." "As a business that relies on collaborative and progressive brand partners as well as a strong shared commitment to sustainability, we can’t think of a better partner than Kathmandu to explore the potential of circular practices through our Circular Mapping process," said Nicole Bassett, co-founder, The Renewal Workshop. The partnership is the first of its kind formed to address textile waste in the Asia-Pacific region.