Business case

Utilising data and models to to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Data analytics, modelling

Data, knowledge & information sharing

Research and facilitate new technological developments to aid the transition to a circular economy.

Research and Development

Environmental assessment & permits

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

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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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Verktyget baseras på det underlag som tas fram under en byggnads projektering. Verktyget innehåller en färdig databas med klimatdata för de byggresurser som används på den svenska marknaden. Det gör att man direkt kan få ett medelvärdesresultat som beskriver en byggnads klimatpåverkan i Sverige. Resultatet kan därefter användas för att göra förbättringar av den aktuella byggnaden. 

Sweden

IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute is an independent non-profit organization owned by a foundation established by the Swedish state and industry. IVL conducts re- search and provides business services related to all types of environmental questions. They have extensive experience from performing life-cycle assessments and environmental analysis with a range of industries.

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 IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute

The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)

Swedish National Energy Department

"The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) developed a freely available Life cycle assessment (LCA) tool in 2017. The tool is currently publically available and being piloted on municipal projects in collaboration with the National Energy Department" (Source: C40's Clean Construction Policy Explorer)

Freely available Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool - BM 

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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

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

Jobs

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

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)

Collecting waste from households and businesses by means of refuse bins, wheeled bins, containers, etc., and providing treatment, incineration, materials recovery and reclamation, and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste

Waste Management

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

Fashion and Textiles

Providing air, water, rail, and land transportation and related services for the distribution of goods, such as air freight, air courier and logistics services, maritime freight, marine courier and logistics services, rail freight, rail courier and logistics services, land freight, land courier and logistics services, including package and mail delivery and customs agents, as well as storage and warehouse facilities

Logistics Services

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

Employ technologies to gather and analyse data to provide insights on resource use

Data and insights

Installing sensors to gather data from products and services to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Sensors, monitoring systems

Develop infrastructure to support sustainable lifestyles

Develop infrastructure to support resource cycling

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

The demand for transport is rising globally—but current modes are heavily material- and fossil-fuels-intensive. Emissions from the transport system could grow by 60% by 2050, and transport is the number-one user of oil worldwide. GHG emissions result not only in warming global temperatures, but also in ocean acidification, which has severe consequences for entire ecosystems and further destabilises our climate. The transport system also drives land-use change and biodiversity loss through the development of infrastructure—also releasing harmful pollutants into the ocean. Key circular solutions:

- Embrace and enable car-free lifestyles
- Invest in high-quality public transport
- Rethink unnecessary air travel
- Electrify remaining vehicles

🚌 Mobility Systems

Governments

Impacts

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Industries

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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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Thematic Areas

City Stakeholders

 Siptex is the world’s first large-scale facility of its kind. It sorts textiles by colour and fibre composition using near-infrared light, allowing it to handle large flows and produce textile fractions suited to different recycling processes.  A new link in the textile value chain 
Consistent quality and large volumes are essential for textile recycling on a large scale. Today’s manual sorting of textiles cannot meet the market’s need for quality-assured products. Automated sorting is the link that is currently missing between collection and high-quality textile recycling.
Siptex aims to contribute to increased circularity in the textile value chain and strengthen Sweden’s position as a pioneer in innovation and the circular economy.
 How the facility works 
Using near-infrared (NIR) and visual spectroscopy (VIS), Siptex sorts textile waste by fibre type and colour. The textiles are illuminated and the light is reflected in different ways depending on the material. Sensors detect and categorise the type of fibre, then compressed air blows the fabric into the right container. The plant can be programmed to simultaneously sort three different flows.
 Materials in 
The Siptex plant handles three categories of textile material:
• Textile from industry: pre-consumer materials from industry, such as production waste.
• Pre-sorted textiles: pre-sorted post-consumer material of a specific product type, such as torn sheets or t-shirts.
• Residual textiles: residual textiles from consumers and industry, such as garments that cannot be used again.

- That the mixed textile waste after sorting can now go on to become new textiles is very positive from a resource and sustainability perspective. This means that we can avoid new production by taking advantage of the textiles that are already on the market and keeping the textile fibers in the cycle as long as possible, says Erik Perzon, textile expert at IVL Swedish Environmental Institute.Every year, we throw away over four million tonnes of clothing and other textiles in the EU. Most of it is thrown in the household rubbish and incinerated, only a few percent become new textiles again. A limitation has been the sorting where today's manual handling of textile waste has difficulty reaching the requirements set by recyclers.- Large-scale textile recycling requires consistent quality and large volumes. This is also what the automatic sorting can deliver, says Erik Perzon.Siptex, which stands for "Swedish innovation platform for textile sorting", will be the link that is currently missing between collected textile waste and high-quality fiber-to-fiber recycling. The project is led by IVL and is carried out together with a broad consortium consisting of Swedish fashion and furniture companies, authorities and actors from different parts of the textile value chain. With support from Vinnova and investments by the Scanian waste company Sysav, the unique textile sorting plant could be built in Malmö last year.The full-scale Siptex plant is now in operation and will start delivering materials to recyclers. Using near-infrared light, the plant sorts mixed textile waste and produces textile bales of exact fiber composition. The bales can go on to various forms of high-quality recycling, both chemical and mechanical.- The plant can sort basically any type of fiber. We initially focused on cotton, polyester, acrylic and wool, but more products will be added to our range. The goal has been to find sales for all types of fiber that are in a post-consumer flow, says Stefan Poldrugac, business developer at Sysav.The new products have been named ReFab® - Renewable Fabulous Fabric. With them, new opportunities for textile recycling open up. An increasing environmental awareness in the fashion industry has increased the demand for recycled textiles, but in the past it has been difficult for companies to obtain the right raw material.The textiles that come to the facility in Malmö are things that cannot be reused. It is sorted textile that can not be sold second hand, broken garments and textile waste from industry.In full operation, the Siptex plant will have the capacity to sort 24,000 tonnes of textiles per year, which corresponds to approximately 30 percent of the textiles thrown in Sweden during the same period.- The pandemic affected the collection in 2020, but it is starting to brighten. We look forward to an increased collection rate among municipalities so we can close textile chains within Sweden, says Stefan Poldrugac.Siptex is the first facility of its kind, but Erik Perzon hopes for more in the future. It is needed to take care of the textile waste and make something good out of it.- It can be said that this plant replaces a cotton field in Bangladesh or a polyester factory in China. It is not only a solution to a waste problem, but also a way to replace new production and it is the biggest benefit from an environmental perspective, he says.For questions contact:Erik Perzon, erik.perzon@ivl.se, tel. 010-788 65 70Anna Vilén, anna.vilen@sysav.se, tel. 073-439 61 90

          Varje år deponeras eller förbränns 4,3 miljoner ton textilavfall i EU. Över 140 000 ton nya textilier sätts på den svenska marknaden, men bara knappt fem procent materialåtervinns. Detta vill vi ändra på.           Det har fattats en länk mellan insamling av textil och högkvalitativ återvinning. Siptex är världens första automatiska storskaliga anläggning för textilsortering., och kommer att förändra möjligheterna för återvinning.             Siptex är världens första storskaliga anläggning i sitt slag. Den sorterar textil efter färg och fibersammansättning med hjälp av nära-infrarött ljus, vilket gör det möjligt att hantera stora flöden och producera textilfraktioner som är anpassade för olika återvinningsprocesser.
En ny länk i den textila värdekedjan
För textilåtervinning i större skala krävs jämn kvalitet och stora volymer. Dagens manuella sortering av textil kan inte matcha marknadens behov av kvalitetssäkrade produkter. Automatiserad sortering är den länk som i dag saknas mellan insamling och högkvalitativ återvinning av textil. Därför kommer Siptex att bidra till ökad cirkuläritet i den textila värdekedjan och stärka Sveriges position som föregångsland inom innovation och cirkulär ekonomi.
Se filmen om Siptex        Sysav tar emot tre kategorier av textilmaterial till Siptex-anläggningen: Pre-consumer-material från industri, till exempel spill från produktion.   Försorterat post-consumer-material av specifik produkttyp, som till exempel trasiga lakan eller t-shirtar.  Sorteringssrester från konsument och industri, till exempel plagg som inte går att återbruka. 
Läs mer om sorteringstjänsten        Sysav ReFab® är ett standardiserat sortiment av kvalitetssäkrade recycling-produkter med garanterad fibersammansättning och färg, som lämpar sig för olika återvinningsprocesser. Exempel på produkter: 

Bomull (av specifik renhetsgrad och färg)
Ull (av specifik renhetsgrad och färg)
Polyester (av specifik renhetsgrad och färg)
Viskos (av specifik renhetsgrad och färg)
Polyamid (av specifik renhetsgrad och färg)
Akryl (av specifik renhetsgrad och färg)
Anpassade produkter: anläggningen kan sortera ut fibersammansättningar skräddarsydda efter kundens krav 

Läs mer om textilprodukter           Siptex - automatisk sortering i industriell skala      Siptex sorteringstjänst      ReFab® textilprodukter                 SIPTex står för "Svensk innovationsplattform för textilsortering" och ska utgöra den länk som idag saknas mellan textilinsamling och en högkvalitativ textilåtervinning. 
Siptex finansieras av Vinnova och är ett steg 3-projekt inom programmet Utmaningsdriven innovation. Detta steg innebär etablering av världens första automatiserade sorteringsanläggning för post-consumer textilier i industriell skala. Projektet leds av IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet och genomförs tillsammans med ett brett konsortium bestående av svenska modebolag, forskningsinstitut, myndigheter och aktörer från olika delar av värdekedjan för textil.
Från november 2021 upphör Siptex att vara ett forskningsprojekt och övergår helt till Sysav, som har investerat i anläggningen. 
   
Boer Group
Elis
Gina Tricot
H&M
Human Bridge
ICA
IKEA
IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet
KappAhl
KEMI
Kretslopp och Vatten
Malmö Stad
Myrorna
Naturvårdsverket
Refashion
Renewcell
Röda Korset
Stadium
Stockholm Vatten och Avfall
Sysav
 
Läs mer om steg 1
Läs mer om steg 2
Läs mer om steg 3
                Med hjälp av nära-infraröd och visuell spektroskopi (NIR/VIS) sorterar Siptex textilavfall efter fibertyp och färg. Textilierna belyses och ljuset reflekteras på olika sätt beroende på vilket material det är. Sensorer registrerar och räknar ut vilken fibertyp det är. Tryckluft blåser textilen så att den hamnar i rätt behållare. Anläggningen kan programmeras att sortera ut tre olika flöden samtidigt.   
Kapacitet: 4,5 ton per timme (24 000 ton/år)
NIR/VIS-maskiner: 4 stycken
Transportband: 260 meter
Tillverkare: Stadler/Tomra 
Placering: Bjurögatan 20, Malmö
                Senast uppdaterat 2021-08-02            

      Written by Simon Glover	    Published: 17 November 2020        MALMÖ – The world's first industral scale automated textile sorting system is now in operation in Malmö, Sweden, where backers hope it will revolutionise textile recycling in the country and create new markets for textile waste. Called Siptex (Swedish Innovation Platform for Textile Sorting), the 30 metre machine, at the plant of the Sysav waste treatment and recycling company, is capable of sorting up to 24,000 of the 140,000 tonnes of textile waste produced in the country each year. First reported in Ecotextile News back in 2016, Siptex is funded by the Vinnova government agency, led by IVL Swedish Environmental Institute and backed by a consortium of 20 Swedish textile and fashion companies, research institutes, charities and authorities. Log in or subscribe to see this content   

Malmo

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Sysav

Vinnova

The Siptex sorting plant is the world's first fully automated sorting facility that allows the processing of large amounts of textile waste with high precision, functioning as the link between textile collection and high-quality textile recycling. The facility is capable of sorting up to 24.000 tonnes of textiles per year and has operated in Southern Sweden since 2021.