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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

Article / Report

Impact on increased knowledge and understanding as a result of the case study

Increase Awareness

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

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

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

Producing machinery for mining, construction, industrial, and agricultural use, such as heavy duty trucks, rolling machinery, earth-moving and construction equipment, farm machinery, commercial printing and presses, machine tools, compressors, pollution control equipment, elevators, escalators, insulators, pumps, etc., including their related parts

Machinery

Work together throughout the supply chain, internally within organisations and with the public sector and communities to increase transparency and create joint value

Team up to create joint value

Engage and guide customers and consumers to ensure circular use of products

Customer / consumer collaboration

Engaging in discussions with customers to educate and raise awareness of the circular economy and explore circular opportunities together

Customer dialogue, marketing 

Solidify definitions and create frameworks to support the understanding of the circular economy across contexts and maintain cohesive systems of data sharing, processing and storing.


 Knowledge Management

Raise awareness and run information campaigns about  strategies for and impacts of the circular economy in different contexts.

Communication and awareness

VISION:
People are valued and supported in an equitable, socially just and resilient society.

DETAIL:
Imagine a time when…people and communities are at the heart of any sustainable and circular system. The planet thrives, enabling us to survive with balance and abundance. People are no longer passive consumers, but proactive participants. The ‘makers’ who design, build, reprocess and recirculate products throughout the value chain are treated equally and are equitable partners in shaping and benefitting from the system. Textiles/garments can be produced and repurposed locally as well as centrally. A blend of craft methods alongside more automated production provides regionalised, multi-faceted perspectives and fulfilling livelihoods, be they high- or low-tech. Wealth gaps are minimised and dignity, equity, equality is a reality for all.

People and Society

CE Materials

Impacts

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Industries

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Materials

Nace Sectors

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

Topics

Urban Opportunities

Whilst no two countries are the same, there are still obvious similarities between some of them, with discernible development patterns and parallels in evidence. Common problems and shared solutions help place unique country identities and individual issues in context.

Whilst this classification is far from clear-cut and exhibits some overlap, it does underline how the discourse on transitioning to a circular economy needs to account for both differences and commonalities, if we are to arrive at a more strategic and instructive analysis. It also allows to highlight a set of key themes that are likely to be central to the countries that fall under the respective profiles. 

Country profiles (Build, Grow, Shift)

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A framework to distinguish between different country profiles and their circular transition needs.

Browse case studies by type of implementing stakeholder.

Implementing stakeholders

80+ circular strategies for product development 
organised hierarchically into three tiers
with tier 1 and tier 2 based on the Key Elements Framework

DISRUPT

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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The Circular City Actions Framework provides urban changemakers with five complementary strategies they can use to start working towards a more circular system. 

The framework is action-based to provide users with concrete strategic directions and showcase the desired outcomes of each strategy. 
The framework consists of five complementary **strategies**, under which **sub-strategies** provide further detail. Finally, each sub-strategy consists of a diversity of tangible **solutions** which are framed in relation to key thematic areas. 

Note: solutions are currently focused on:
- 🍏 **Food systems**
- 🏢  **Built environment**
- 👕📱  **Consumer goods**
- ⚡ **Energy Systems**
- 🚌 **Mobility Systems**
- 💧 **Water Systems**

More thematic areas are coming soon...

'Click through each of the five strategy cards below to explore the framework and circular economy case studies in more depth!'



This framework was developed in collaboration with ICLEI, Metabolic and Ellen MacArthur Foundation with support from the MAVA Foundation. Read more about it [here]( https://circulars.iclei.org/action-framework/). 



Circular City Actions Framework

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An action-based framework for local governments working towards circular cities

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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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Adolescent girls and young women working within textile mills are at risk of exploitative practices that in some cases may amount to forced labour. These practices include excessive and involuntary overtime, extremely low wages, physical and sexual violence, restriction of movement and denial of freedom of association.We believe that international brands and retailers sourcing textiles from Tamil Nadu have a responsibility to address severe rights violations within their supply chain. This requires collaborative action between business and civil society to improve conditions within the industry.

 We invite brands and retailers to work collaboratively to ensure the effective protection of workers’ rights in the spinning mills and textile units in their supply chains, by committing to engage with the Tamil Nadu Alliance on the five goals of the Tamil Nadu Framework of Action: transparency, policy engagement, purchasing practices, worker-centred monitoring and collective grievance mechanisms. Transparency: Expand supply chain transparency beyond tier 1 cut-and-sew operations by publicly disclosing the details of all textile, raw material manufacturing processes, and finished product facilities in the global supply chain. Policy development and engagement: In Tamil Nadu, proactively support policy implementation efforts on minimum wages for textile workers, internal complaints committees, hostel registration, statutory employer benefits, registration of migrant workers and labour inspection.Fair and equitable purchasing practices: Adopt responsible sourcing and purchasing practices on price and order placement, and take steps to consolidate the supply chain by creating stable, long-term relationships with tier 2 and 3 suppliers.Worker-centred monitoring mechanisms: Instead of relying on third-party social audits, develop collaborative worker-centred, transparent and accountable mechanisms to monitor compliance with labour rights standards.Grievance mechanisms: Support civil society efforts to develop a collaborative grievance mechanism that provides effective remedy for mill workers in Tamil Nadu.

 Supply chains in the global garment and textiles industry are long, complex, fragmented, continuously evolving and notoriously opaque. This is a problem because fragmented and opaque supply chains can allow exploitative and unsafe working conditions to thrive while obscuring who has the responsibility and power to redress them.
Currently, most supply chain disclosure by major brands and retailers covers their first tier manufacturers, where they tend to have direct business relationships with the suppliers that are involved in the final stages of production such as cutting, sewing, assembling and packing for shipment. 
When you start to look further down the supply chain where fabrics are knitted or woven, textiles are treated and laundered, yarns are spun and dyed, fibres are sorted and processed and raw materials are grown and picked there remains a widespread lack of transparency. WHAT IS THE TAMIL NADU DECLARATION?
The Tamil Nadu Alliance calls upon major fashion brands and retailers to help eradicate severe labour exploitation in textile spinning mills in southern India through reform across five areas:
Goal 1 – Transparency: Expand supply chain transparency beyond tier 1 cut-and-sew operations by publicly disclosing the details of all textile, raw material manufacturing processes, and finished product facilities in the global supply chain. 
Goal 2 – Policy development and engagement: In Tamil Nadu, proactively support policy implementation efforts on minimum wages for textile workers, internal complaints committees, hostel registration, statutory employer benefits, registration of migrant workers and labour inspection.
Goal 3- Fair and equitable purchasing practices: Adopt responsible sourcing and purchasing practices on price and order placement, and take steps to consolidate the supply chain by creating stable, long-term relationships with tier 2 and 3 suppliers.
Goal 4- Worker-centred monitoring mechanisms: Instead of relying on third-party social audits, develop collaborative worker-centred, transparent and accountable mechanisms to monitor compliance with labour rights standards.
Goal 5 – Grievance mechanisms: Support civil society efforts to develop a collaborative grievance mechanism that provides effective remedy for mill workers in Tamil Nadu. NEXT STEPS
We urge fashion brands and retailers to sign the Tamil Nadu Declaration and Framework of Action and take action to increase supply chain transparency and help eradicate severe labour exploitation in textile spinning mills. Fashion Revolution will be periodically monitoring and reporting on brands’ efforts towards Goal 1 – transparency beyond the first tier. Stay tuned for further developments on this partnership. 

 Fashion supply chains are notoriously opaque, and this can enable exploitative working conditions to thrive while obscuring who has the responsibility and power to redress them. 
While a growing number of brands and retailers have published a list of the factories where their garments are cut and sewn, the vast majority of brands are not yet disclosing the facilities where fabrics and yarns are made. This leaves a huge blind spot where human rights and environmental risks may be significant and going unaddressed.
In support of Goal 1 of the Tamil Nadu Declaration and Framework of Action, we conducted research into the supply chain transparency efforts of 62 major fashion brands and retailers last year. Our report revealed that only 31% of brands were disclosing part of their textile supply chain, with only 1 out of 62 brands disclosing their entire global supply chain beyond the first tier of manufacturing.
When you start to look further down the supply chain, where fabrics are knitted or woven, textiles are treated and laundered, yarns are spun and dyed, fibres are sorted and processed and raw materials are grown and picked; there remains a widespread lack of transparency. We need brands to provide more visibility and take more responsibility for their entire global supply chain, including processing facilities and textile mills.
We’re calling upon citizens everywhere to demand greater transparency from brands by asking #WhoMadeMyFabric? We’re also calling for producers to tell us #IMadeYourFabric, so we can connect more closely with the people who produce the fabrics and raw materials we wear. 

  The Freedom Fund is a leader in the global movement to end trafficking, bonded and child labour. It identifies and invests in the most effective frontline efforts in the countries and sectors where these issues are most prevalent. Partnering with visionary investors, governments, anti-trafficking organisations and those at risk of exploitation, it tackles the systems that allow trafficking and bonded labour to persist and thrive. Working together, it protects vulnerable populations, liberates and reintegrates trafficking survivors and prosecutes those responsible. In India, it supports programs in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajashthan and Tamil Nadu. The Freedom Fund works with 13 NGO partners in four districts of Tamil Nadu to reduce vulnerability of girls and young women working in textile and garment industries. These local organizations develop a shared analysis, along with affected communities and survivors, about the best ways to take action. www.freedomfund.org 

Tamil Nadu

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Fashion Revolution Week

Tamil Nadu Alliance

<p>In support of the&nbsp;Tamil Nadu Declaration and Framework of Action, Fashion Revolution have partnered with Tamil Nadu Alliance to try and combat the opaque and disjointed supply chains that exist throughout the textile and apparel industries. Within their report ‘Out of Site: A call for transparency from field to fabric’, Fashion Revolution have conducted research around 62 major fashion brands and retailers to uncover the harmful and exploitative working conditions that thrive behind the lack of transparency.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>