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

Jobs

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

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

Innovation

Scalability

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)

Reduced use of fossil fuel energy sources and/or increased use of renewable energy

Reduce Energy Consumption

Producing agricultural products and processing them into food and beverageproducts for consumption

Agri/Food

Producing and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and Services

Providing specialist services to support consumers, businesses, andgovernments

Professional Services

Societal Services

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

Operating networks and software that enable the exchange and broadcasting of information, such as entertainment and internet software, television, cable, satellite or radio broadcasting systems, and cellular, wireless and/or fixed-line telecommunications services

Software and Communications

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

Fashion and Textiles

Producing and gathering crop and animal products from land and water through farming, hunting, and fishing

Agriculture

Processing and producing food and beverages for consumption

Food and Beverage

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

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

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

Replace freshwater with less impactful alternatives and enact water efficiency measures

Regenerative water

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

Valorise waste streams - closed loop

Designing to reduce waste during production and use

Design out waste

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

Data and insights

Using bio-based materials such as bioplastics, mushroom-based materials, etc.

Alternative bio-based materials and inputs

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

Enacting measures that optimise water use

Water efficiency

Transforming waste products, materials for reuse within the same industry

Closed loop upcycling

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

Connecting products and services into the internet of things to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Internet enabled, connected operations

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

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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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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An entrepreneur with a background in verifying the provenance of so-called conflict minerals is applying that expertise to keep tabs on one of the world's most widely traded commodities: coffee. Tracking this kitchen staple requires a mélange of emerging technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and the internet of things. The goal of his venture, bext360, is to help coffee buyers automate their dealings with fair-trade farmers, allowing them to more closely track the source and quality of the fair trade beans they’re buying while speeding up payments for local growers.For buyers, the service promises deeper transparency, as well as a way of automating the verification process. For harvesters and growers — largely women —  the service could mean more ready access to investment capital, according to bext360 CEO Daniel Jones."We’re aiming to transform the coffee supply chain while bringing consumers and farming communities together to improve product quality, community livelihoods and the consumer coffee experience," he said in a press release launching the new company.To achieve that aim, the startup — which emerged from stealth Tuesday with $1.2 million in venture funding led by SKS Venture Partners — is tapping into Stellar, an existing blockchain-based transaction network used in emerging economies. Blockchain is the distributed ledger that manages transactions of the bitcoin digital currency, although the technology is at the center of dozens of experiments in the sustainability realm, many involving a range of supply chain applications and energy trading schemes.Bext360’s first "product" will be a kiosk, similar to a Coinstar change collection machine, that farmers can use to sell their beans, Jones said. The system is designed to use smart image recognition technology to evaluate the crops being submitted at production facilities, drawing on machine learning software to categorize the grade, assign a price and determine the identity of the person selling it. The farmers are credited for their delivery via a mobile app.  He got the idea for using digital payments within the coffee supply chain — an estimated $100 billion market worldwide — while working on a previous business focused on exporting conflict-free minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to Jones, 25 million people are directly involved in the coffee chain, many in rural, emerging countries. Reaching them is a thorny logistics issue."What we found while we were doing that, we looked at our P&L and our cost structure and what was going on around us, is that we were spending 30 percent of SG&A on security and other logistics services just to transport money into the field to pay the artisanal miners for their good, to analyze their goods," Jones told GreenBiz. "At the same time, we were always surprised that even in eastern Congo that we could get a cell signal, and that most people even in small villages, or some people I should say in the small businesses of Congo, were transacting on the streets with their phones."Learn more about models for market transformation at VERGE Hawaii, June 20-22 in Honolulu, Hawaii.Initially, bext360 will work directly with coffee buyers to place machines in communities where they have trading partners. The business model calls for its kiosks to be owned by local entrepreneurs and cooperatives, with commissions from transactions split between the banks or financial services companies managing the digital "wallet" accounts of farmers, the business hosting the collection system, and (ultimately) bext360. "They would be able to implement our technology seamlessly into their supply chain," Jones said.The company has tested the technology at coffee plantations in Mexico and plans to run a larger pilot in California this summer, Jones said. Bext360 already has relationships with financial institutions in Congo and Rwanda, and is in discussions with an investment group interested in deploying the systems in Colombia. "Our goal is that we are going to do two of those before the end of the year," he said. "Supervised, end-to-end deployments." Another potential impact of the technology, according to Jones, is that farmers might be able to command a higher price for their harvests because the system’s artificial intelligence software will use image recognition to assess the grades of their beans more accurately than the current manual methods. "The way the NGOs are working, and the people who monitor that fair trade for the companies themselves, it’s very antiquated," he said. "In some cases, it’s as antiquated as carbon copies: green, blue, yellow pieces of paper. With our technology, combined with Stellar, we’re able to know exactly where every cherry came from in that batch, every farmer that contributed to that batch. In that instant, we can say, 'The fair trade payment is now this,' and literally click one button, and suddenly all those phones would beep with their payments."

  Our vision is two fold: creating radical transparency from fiber-to-retail, and ensuring authenticity & provenance of sustainable textiles against generics.   TextileGenesis™ platform is an outcome of intensive “grass-root” discussions with the entire apparel supply chain from fiber producers, fabric mills, dyeing house, cut & sew, to retail brands.   It's custom-built for the premium and sustainable textiles such as wood-based fibers, premium cotton, specialty filaments, silk, wool and cashmere.  Our technology secures brand reputation against fakes, creates article level transparency from fiber-to-retail, and drives value-chain inventory optimization. 

Archroma, a leader in colour and specialty chemicals, has announced that its EarthColors dyestuff range has won the Gold Winner at the OutDoor Industry Award 2017, Sustainable innovations Category, presented at a ceremony held on 18 June 2017.
Among the winners, the Gold Winner Award distinguishes further the EarthColors range – out of the 330 entries – as one of the most innovative products of the industry in what is one of the highlights of the OutDoor Show held in Friedrichshafen, Germany, this week.
“We are extremely proud to receive one of the most prominent Awards in the outdoor industry,” commented Nuria Estape, Head of Marketing & Promotion for Archroma’s Brand & Performance Textile Specialties business, after the ceremony. “The OutDoor Industry Award will surely help us convince more brands and retailers to explore and adopt more nature-friendly solutions from Archroma.”
EarthColors are Archroma's patent-pending new method of creating warm ternary shades from nature. These dyes are synthesised from natural waste products of the agriculture and herbal industries, such as almond shells and rosemary leaves, replacing the oil-based raw materials typically used in dyestuff manufacture. Earthcolors are available in a range of six dyes, covering a palette of natural shades.

“Creating sustainable solutions is a journey: EarthColors was more than five years in the making and the project is still evolving in our laboratories,” said Manel Domingo, R&D Head for Special Dyes at Archroma, who developed the EarthColors technology.
“With the planet reaching the limit of its resources, we need to offer more sustainable options to the consumers. That is why we spare no efforts to develop groundbreaking innovations in the deep belief that we can make our industry sustainable. It’s our nature.”
www.archroma.com

Basel

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Archroma is a global colour and speciality chemicals company committed to protecting the planet and its people by producing cleanly, closing the loop, and respecting the environment.

Archroma

<p>Archroma is a global colour and speciality chemicals company. It is committed to operating in a holistic way to protect the health and safety of people, as well as the environment. In order to shift reliance away from non-renewable petroleum-based dyestuffs and to not compete with food production through the cultivation of natural dyes, Archroma EarthColors creates value by upcycling non-edible agricultural by-products that would otherwise be sent to landfill. The range features warm shades that are suitable for dyeing cellulosic fibres.</p><p>Archroma is headquartered in Reinach near Basel, Switzerland, and operates with approximately 3,000 employees across 35 countries.</p>