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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 increased knowledge and understanding as a result of the case study

Increase Awareness

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)

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

Fashion and 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

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

Design for cyclability

Designing products so they are able to be easily repaired

Design for repair

Solutions at all stages of the textiles value chain.

Zero Waste Textiles

Other

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

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

Urban Opportunities

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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                                          Though it may seem counterintuitive, washing and drying your waterproof outerwear — and periodically reapplying durable water repellent (DWR) — will help to ensure it remains water and stain repellant for years to come. Patagonia wants to help you get the most out of your gear; here you'll find brief explanations and some guides to proper care.      If you're on an adventure, miles from civilization, and you rip a hole in your gear you can't just whip out your sewing machine. For those unexpected situations, we've got your back with a special series of on-the-go fixes.      During an extended backcountry trip or a faraway expedition, if your gear breaks, you make a repair. There are no other options. But back at home when something breaks, many people are in the habit of throwing it out. Fortunately, most Patagonia® gear can easily be fixed, so we've partnered with iFixit to show you, step-by-step, how to repair your Patagonia® clothing. A patch on your jacket or a gleaming new zipper not only gives you bragging rights, but completing the repair yourself extends the life of your gear. Learn more about the Patagonia Worn Wear® Program on iFixit.com.     







Lasting Function and a Commitment to Repair
In a landscape of disposable ski and snowboard fashion, fixing and keeping your snow gear in play is the most radical act we know. On average, most of us keep a piece of clothing for just three years, yet the materials and processes for making any new garment are tremendously costly to the planet. The average U.S. citizen throws away 70 pounds of clothing and other textiles each year, of which 85 percent goes to landfills. Only 15 percent is donated or recycled, although most discarded clothing is suitable for reuse.
We build your winter garments and equipment to last. We want you to keep them in use—to love them for the experiences you’ve had with them the way so many have been trained to love brand new things for their pristine novelty. Like a good backcountry partner, your snow garments become something you can trust; you know what they can survive and where they thrive. They’ve trudged the last steps to faraway summits and toughed it out on multi-day missions. They’ve been immersed in the season’s best turns and endured a few tears and repairs along the way. Why wouldn’t you keep them around? Just to swap them for next season’s color?











Crested Butte Ski Patroller Ellie Atkins gives her jacket the good ol’ duct tape treatment inside the patrol shack—a temporary fix to get her through the day. Crested Butte, Colorado. Photo: Jeff Cricco







 



At Patagonia there are two ways we are changing our relationship to things: first, our dedicated approach to building durable, meant-to-last high-performance products with recycled inputs wherever possible. For example, this season our pinnacle PowSlayer Jacket and Bibs are now built with 100% recycled GORE-TEX® Pro face fabric. And second, our commitment to repairing, repurposing or recycling your garments at the end of their life.
We discovered about 10 years ago, after publicly committing to take back from customers anything we’ve ever made, that in the “Reduce, Repair, Reuse, Recycle” mantra, recycle comes last for good reason. Some things shouldn’t be made, or bought, in the first place. Everything made comes with more environmental cost than we can repay. Whatever breaks should be fixable. And whatever still works, yet merely hangs in a closet or sits in a garage, should be put back in circulation.
Each time we have ramped up our repair facility in Reno, we have outgrown our capacity within months to the point where we now operate the largest clothing repair facility in North America (repairing about 50,000 pieces per year).











Repair Tech Andy Cook fixes one of the nearly 50,000 garments repaired at our Reno facility last year. Photo: Tim Davis










Looking down on our Reno distribution center and repair facility. A short walk over the Truckee River gives employees access to an extensive trail system behind the building. The shoulder of Peavine Peak beckons in the distance. Reno, Nevada. Photo: Tim Davis










Patagonia Repairs Supervisor Tanya Nawrocki looks for matching trim pieces (zippers, buttons, pulls). Photo: Fred Marmsater










Patagonia Repair Tech Manuel Rivera fixes a ski patrol jacket. Photo: Ken Etzel










The boneyard: Repair techs will pull usable parts and fabrics from these shells when needed. Photo: Tim Davis










Andy Cook removes a strip of seam sealing tape from the zipper backing of a PowSlayer Jacket after heating/loosening it up on a Geo Knight heat press machine. Photo: Tim Davis










When a garment can’t be repaired, it doesn’t get thrown away. These bails of irreparable garments are ready to be upcycled, recycled and/or repurposed. Photo: Tim Davis



  

   Fashion, clothing and textiles    Patagonia - Worn Wear Program   What is it?  Worn Wear is Patagonia's product life extension hub ‘because the best thing we can do for the planet is cut down on consumption and get more use out of stuff we already own’ (Patagonia, 2020). Why is this important? The clothing industry is one of the most polluting industries. Conventional (non-organic) cotton production is a vast consumer of water and pesticides. Polyester and nylon are made of manmade materials consuming energy and resources. Clothing is also a massive source of obsolescence and waste. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017) estimates that “USD 500 billion value is lost every year due to clothing being barely worn and rarely recycled”. Main resource strategy: slowing resource loops by allowing clothing and other outdoor gear to last for a longer time. Patagonia also created a ‘recrafted collection’ based on remanufacturing used clothes into new ones. Other resource strategies: closing the loop (e.g. facilitating recycling after multiple reuses); building quality new products initially will allow for future circular activities (repair, resale, upcycle) Business model aspects: Patagonia is extending the product value of its range: Patagonia has a trade-in and resell model so it can resell 2ndhand products on its online platform. The customer trading in items receives a fee for its traded in product and Patagonia sells it on with a margin after quality curation on its platform.  Value Proposition: Quality products as a reduced price; a valuable clothing reuse option for Patagonia customers Value Creation & Delivery: Consumers can trade in their used products, receive a trade-in price, and Patagonia will give up to $100 in vouchers to be used online or in their stores (Patagonia, 2018). Value Capture: Trade-in prices range from $10 for children’s gear and less technical items up to $100 for more technical items, such as alpine insulation jackets. (Patagonia, 2018). Fleeces are sold for roughly $ 45 – 100 and jackets for $ 60- 400 showing the potential profit margins after any cleaning and repairs.  Business model experimentation practices: Patagonia started off by a collaboration with eBay (Common Threads Initiative) where Patagonia pledged to ‘build useful things that last, to repair what breaks and recycle what comes to the end of its useful life’, whereas customers were asked to only buy what is needed and will last, make repairs, reuse and recycle, and consider second hand products (Bocken & Short, 2016). Moreover, Patagonia hosts a repair website in collaboration with iFixit (2020). These may have been the starting point for further experimentation that has led to the Worn Wear platform. Sustainability outcomes: It is estimated that Patagonia has sold 120,000 repurposed items to date (Batten, 2020).  Some estimates suggest that buying used garments rather than new ones could reduce an individual’s apparel carbon footprint by up to a 60% (Batten, 2020). Furthermore, an increase of 10% in second-hand sales could cut carbon emissions per tonne of clothing by 3% and water use by 4%, if it extends garment life by 50% (WRAP, 2017). Exact numbers vary and depend on how long the product life is extended and the use phase, i.e., how often and how the clothing is washed. Sources:  Batten (2020). Patagonia’s Worn Wear Collection Is Saving the Planet. Accessed 25 November 2020 at:https://www.themanual.com/outdoors/oatagonia-worn-wear-collection-recycled-recommerce/ Bocken, N. M., & Short, S. W. (2016). Towards a sufficiency-driven business model: Experiences and opportunities. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 18, 41-61. Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017), A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future. Accessed 25 November at:  http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications iFixit. (2020). Accessed 25 November at:  https://www.ifixit.com/Patagonia Patagonia (2018). PATAGONIA TRADE-IN VALUES. Accessed 25 November at:  https://wornwear.patagonia.com/assets/WW-TRADE-IN-VALUES.pdf Patagonia (2020), Wornwear website. Accessed 25 November at:  https://wornwear.patagonia.com WRAP (2017). Valuing Our Clothes: the cost of UK fashion (July 2017) *** About project Circular X  Project Circular X is about ‘Experimentation with Circular Service Business Models’. It is an ambitious research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) which supports top researchers from anywhere in the world. Project CIRCULAR X runs from 2020-2025.  The project is led by Principal Investigator (PI) Prof Dr Nancy Bocken, who is joined by a multidisciplinary team of researchers at Maastricht Sustainability Institute (MSI), Maastricht School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University. The project cooperates with businesses who want to innovate towards the circular economy.   Project Circular X addresses a new and urgent issue: experimentation with circular service business models (CSBMs). Examples of such new business models include companies shifting from selling products to selling services and introducing lifelong warrantees to extend product lifetimes. However, CSBMs are far from mainstream and research focused on experimentation is little understood.  The research aims to conduct interdisciplinary research with 4 objectives:    Advancing understanding of CSBMs; their emergence and impacts  Advancing knowledge on CSBM experimentation  Developing CSBM experimentation tools Designing and deploying CSBM experimentation labs  Funding source   This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement No. 850159.    Using of this information  When you cite this publication, please use the following source: Circular X. (2020) Case study: Patagonia - Worn Wear Program, Accessed from www.circularx.eu 

Reno

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Patagonia, Inc. is an American retailer of outdoor clothing. It was founded by Yvon Chouinard in 1973 and is based in Ventura, California.
Patagonia is known for its upscale outdoor clothing and various environmental sustainability efforts. The company continues to grow by offering products that are designed to last.

Patagonia

iFixit is a wiki-based site that teaches people how to fix almost anything. Anyone can create a repair manual for a device, and anyone can also edit the existing set of manuals to improve them. Our site empowers individuals to share their technical knowledge with the rest of the world.

iFixit

Patagonia is an outdoor clothing brand headquartered in the United States. In autumn 2015, the company started its Worn Wear program under the motto “Repair is a Radical Act,” an initiative started by CEO Rose Marcario. The program aims to explain to customers the value of preserving clothes by repairing them instead of buying new. Patagonia’s environmentally friendly campaign aims to counter fast fashion trends and increasing demand for new clothes, by encouraging quality standards that produce clothes designed to last.

Patagonia Worn Wear - Repair program for clothes

iFixit is a wiki-based site that teaches people how to fix almost anything.

The Free Repair Manual

HTC Vive customers in North America can purchase OEM replacement parts for VIVE CE and VIVE PRO headsets, VIVE Wireless Adapter, VIVE Tracker, and other peripherals on ifixit.com. iFixit also offers repair guides for the headsets and original VIVE controllers.