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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

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

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

Retail

While resources are in-use, maintain, repair and upgrade them to maximise their lifetime and give them a second life through take back strategies when applicable

Stretch the lifetime

Upgrade, repair, and maintenance while in-use

Maximise lifetime of products in-use

Providing DIY repair kits or spare part programmes for enabling self-repair

Self-repair, spare part service

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

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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  At TOAST we are always seeking to find conscious solutions that increase the longevity of our garments and reduce waste.TOAST Renewal is our free repair service that brings new life to your worn TOAST garments. Bring any TOAST clothing item in need of repair to one of our shops and discuss mending options with a TOAST Shop colleague. If you are able to visit TOAST Bath, Edinburgh, London Notting Hill, London Shoreditch or Oxford you have the opportunity to spend time with a repair expert to discuss creative mending options, learning the best approach for extending the lifespan of your garment.Our shop colleagues or specialist repair experts will share their knowledge on invisible and visible mending, from Sashiko repair, darning and patching to appliqué, before selecting the technique best suited to the fabric and type of repair for your item of clothing. Using these traditional techniques, many of which are sewn by hand, will extend the life of your garment for years to come. By taking the time to restore a well-loved item and highlight its worn areas, we can rethink our relationship with clothing.Our clothes carry the stories of the lives we lead and more often than not, the tears, rips and threadbare zones can offer up some clues about our lifestyle or habits. Whether darned, reworked or visibly mended using techniques like sashiko repair, a garment begins to tell a story of the wearer. TOAST Renewal offers a considered approach to cherishing your garments for longer. Over time, it is our hope that your TOAST clothing will hold an imprint of your own movements, giving a uniquely beautiful patina. Repairing our clothes is both an environmental and economical way of making them last.

“With the repairs I do for TOAST customers, it’s really obvious that a garment has been truly loved and worn a lot, which is always heartening. With visible mending we can celebrate the repair, which in itself is a great antidote to throwaway culture. Every stitch I make brings peace of mind.” Jessica Smulders-Cohen, TOAST Repair Specialist

The TOAST Renewal service is available for all TOAST garments regardless of when and where they were bought. Renewed items can be collected from our shops or posted to your home for a small charge.
What you can bring for repair:Any TOAST item of clothing (dresses, skirts, trousers, shirts, tops, knitwear, jackets, coats, nightwear or loungewear), regardless of when and where it was bought.What is not accepted:Footwear, accessories, jewellery, bags, swimwear, underwear or homeware. Any non-TOAST item of clothing.TOAST Renewal Terms & Conditions apply. 

 TOAST began with loungewear and nightwear, designed in a farmhouse in Wales. Originally founded by James and Jessica Seaton in 1997, the collections reflected a sense of ease and a slower, more thoughtful way of life. Today, led by Suzie de Rohan Willner, TOAST creates and curates simple, functional, beautiful clothing, homeware and editorial.
TOAST has shops throughout the UK and can be found in concept stores across the US and Europe. With studios in both London and Swansea, TOAST continues to design and develop all collections in-house and is proud to be one of the few fashion brands with its own full pattern room – lined with calico toiles and full of pins, papers, chalks and spools of thread, it is a true place of making.  
 Everything we do, from choosing a particular yarn to our campaign photography, conveys a different pace to the bustle of everyday life. It’s no more evident than in our garments. Our design team create timeless pieces in modern, easy silhouettes and quality fabrics to ensure they last. 
 
 We are deeply committed to nurturing creative communities, fostering thought and enriching others. We work with artisans, weavers, and mills from across the globe. We also publish articles on the arts, culture, travel and books in our online magazine, bring customers together through our regular workshops and events and our yearly creative residency, and release seasonal podcasts. 


 We are on a journey to create a more thoughtful way of being in this world. We believe that everyone should be treated with fairness and thoughtfulness. We are keenly aware of our impact on people and the planet and our responsibility towards both is embedded in every decision we make.
Read more about our Social Conscience 
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Garments must be clean when brought for repair.
Whilst COVID-safe procedures apply, all garments will be quarantined for a 72-hour period before our repair experts commence work and before the garment is returned to the customer.
Repair of an item includes, but is not limited to tears, holes, broken zip, loose hem.
TOAST reserves the right to refuse to repair garments that are extensively damaged and beyond reasonable repair.
In the case of extensive repairs e.g. re-lining, TOAST reserves the right to make a charge for an extended repair service. This will be explained to the customer with agreement and payment accepted before any work is undertaken by a repair expert.
In exceptional circumstances we may feel that the repair request exceeds the expertise of our repair experts. In this situation we will endeavour to advise alternative solutions that our customers can consider progressing independently.
A maximum of 2 garments may be bought for repair at any one time and you may not exceed 8 items in any 12 month period.
The standard repair timing per garment is 21 days, although in some cases of high demand there may be a delay to the repair and return of your garment. Customers will be informed of any expected delay.
Repair work to be undertaken will be explained to the customer by a TOAST Shop colleague or repair expert. Customers will be asked to sign their approval before repair work can commence.
We will always do our best to find a perfect match for all materials used to repair your item (unless you have specified otherwise). In cases where we do not have an exact colour match available, we will attempt to get as close as possible.
Garments bought to a TOAST Shop where a repair expert does not reside will be sent to one of our other shops where the repair expert has availability.
Once your garment is ready for collection from a TOAST Shop you will be contacted via telephone or text message.
Repaired garments can be collected free of charge from the TOAST Shop where the item was originally taken for repair or for a charge the garment can be sent directly to your home address at the current rate for the parcel size. These will be advised by a TOAST Shop colleague when items are left for repair. This service will be agreed and paid for when items are dropped for repair.
Garments will be sent to other Shops and customer addresses using a 3rd party tracked courier service. In the unusual situation that a garment might be lost or damaged we will follow that courier’s procedure for logging a lost parcel. TOAST can not accept responsibility for loss or damage in this instance.
Should any dispute occur regarding the service or the terms and conditions, the TOAST Shop Manager’s decision is final.
    
 



We are keenly aware of our impact on people and the planet. We create clothes and home products that are durable – both in their life cycle and in their style - making it possible to use them for many years, if not decades to come. We carefully consider the suppliers we work with and our choice of materials, sourcing quality fabrics and natural fibres that are biodegradable.
We are committed to continuing this journey with a multifaceted approach, implementing new initiatives across the business - from materials and product development to artisan collaborations and product life cycle management.
It’s no longer enough to reduce our impact on the planet; at TOAST we strive to go a step further, leaving the environments and communities we touch improved upon by our conscious actions.
 

By looking at our impact areas, we have set out a roadmap to enrich and educate, contribute through collaboration, cherish our materials and minimise our waste. Community is at the heart of every facet of our business and we believe our best path forward isn’t as a singular voice but a collaborative one, working closely with our customers, suppliers and makers. Together, we hope to create longlasting and low-impact products to be cherished both today and tomorrow.
Our work has already begun – from launching our repair service to producing leaner collections, with 20% less styles this season to reduce our surplus – and, with your support, we can make further strides in creating a fully circular, responsible business.
From next year on, we will publish our social conscience report biannually, offering detailed updates into our sustainable actions and how we are progressing.


TOMORROW

We will launch our TOAST Mentorship Programme to support creative students and graduates each year from 2022, offering guided experience in various departments of the business.
We will expand our New Makers programme, offering up our platform to ten craftspeople across a broad range of artistic disciplines.
We aim to provide more detailed supplier and product information, allowing you to make more informed choices with each purchase.
 
 We believe that everyone within our communities should be treated with fairness and thoughtfulness and we strive to work collaboratively to achieve fair wages, equality and a supportive culture.
TODAY

We have long-standing relationships with our makers, suppliers and artisans - we have been working with our top 25 suppliers for at least eight years.
We ensure our suppliers follow our ethical policy, and we work in collaboration with each and every one, addressing any issues that arise by finding suitable long-term solutions.
We support emerging artists and makers, providing a platform to share their work and, where possible, commissioning them for future projects.


 


 For over twenty years, we have honoured the importance of timeless design and quality, longlasting garments. Our circular principles continue to guide our approach to product design, materials and manufacture, and our initiatives will help you to play a part in conscious consumption.
TODAY

We aim to use natural fibres that are biodegradable. In some instances, we may choose to use synthetic materials that have a lower environmental impact and ensure our products last as long as possible. Whatever raw materials we choose, we aim to use the resources as carefully as possible.
We consistently collaborate with our mills and dyers to explore more sustainable methods of making, transitioning to these as they become available.
We continually seek out innovative and cleaner denim production methods. This includes the use of organic cotton and recycled cotton, locally sourced materials and for some of our range, Indigo Flow - the cleanest and most sustainable method of Indigo dyeing currently available. This method achieves up to 70% reduction in water use, better dye penetration and ensures clean water at the end of the process that is fit for reuse.
When selecting fabrics and yarns we consider all aspects from origin, durability, look, feel and texture, and choose the right materials for the right garment.
85% of our products use purely natural fibres (Cotton, Hemp, Linen, Sustainable Viscose, Wool, Cashmere).
Our customer packaging is made from paper and is fully recyclable. We are continually striving to keep our carbon footprint low – purposefully using materials that are near to our manufacturers.
We resell all non-faulty items that have been returned by our customers ensuring TOAST garments never end up in landfill.


 
TOMORROW

We will ensure 85% of our products continue to use natural fibres and we will increase our use of certified materials in our collections.
80% of our cotton will be organic by 2023. This will include our core garment dyed products, yarn-dyed cotton and jersey fabrics.
We will share the audit results of our top 25 suppliers by 2023, and ensure we are sharing best practice to address any areas highlighted for improvement.
We will commit to mapping the supply chain of our core womenswear products from farm to warehouse by 2023.
We will collaborate with our mills to ensure we have visibility on the provenance of all our fibres, enabling us to make educated decisions when selecting the highest quality fabric or yarn.
We will determine the production miles used in the creation of our core womenswear products. Analysis of this data will allow us to identify where we can increase our locally sourced materials and lower production miles.
We will increase our use of recycled fibres and reduce our dependence on finite resources - with recycled alternatives to polyamide, polyester & nylon used in socks, swimwear and knitwear yarns.
 



 We have always believed in the importance of timeless design. Our garments are made to last, becoming more beautiful as they age. Together with our customers, we treat pre-loved garments as a resource to recycle, rather than waste. We have developed new construction methods and sourced alternatives to plastics that allow us to minimise waste. Our aim is to foster longevity and support you to do the same. We will continue to introduce new production and repurposing initiatives to further reduce our waste.
TODAY

We offer a free repair service in our shops, where customers can bring back torn or worn garments and have them repaired by our in-house technician.

TOAST Circle, our in-shop clothes swapping initiative, extends a garment’s life beyond its first wearer. Currently, customers can exchange an item they’ve worn and loved for another cherished item in four TOAST shops across the UK.

Made to Order, our seasonless edit of transitional pieces, ensures that the artisans we partner with produce only to demand, minimising waste.
All our DHL deliveries (UK and International) are climate neutral, by offsetting through a range of climate protection projects that promote the economy in less developed countries and improve the lives of local people. In the second half of 2019, we offset 305,980kg of CO2e (equivalent to 756,824 miles driven in an average car).



TOMORROW

We will have eliminated all single use virgin plastic from our supply chain by 2023.
We will continue to produce leaner, more focused collections to reduce our levels of surplus stock.
We will repurpose surplus materials in future collections. We will reuse unsellable garments returned to TOAST by upcycling to create unique designs.
We will create platforms for sharing preloved TOAST garments through swapping and resale.
 

United Kingdom

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TOAST

<p>TOAST Renewable is a clothing repair service available to TOAST customers, at select UK stores. The service is a collaborative partnership between TOAST's in-house repair specialists and the clothing owner, as they work together to create a plan to revitalise a damaged garment. The service is free and applies to any TOAST garment, regardless of where and when it was purchased.</p>