thumbnail_WCTD2022_campaignlogo.jpg

WCTD2022_campaignlogo.jpg

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

large_WCTD background.png

medium_WCTD background.png

small_WCTD background.png

thumbnail_WCTD background.png

WCTD background.png

Business case

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

Innovation

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

Using materials that can be easily reused or recycled after use

Reusable, recyclable materials and inputs

Using waste materials that have been processed and recycled to produce new products within the same industry

Using closed loop recycled materials

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

CE Materials

Impacts

small_climate-4803653_640.jpg

thumbnail_climate-4803653_640.jpg

climate-4803653_640.jpg

Industries

small_coast-wind-turbine-sea-sky.jpg

thumbnail_coast-wind-turbine-sea-sky.jpg

coast-wind-turbine-sea-sky.jpg

Materials

A framework of policy instruments that enabled and encourage the transition to the circular economy

Policy Instruments

medium_image-20160922-22514-1aqaw5j.jpg

small_image-20160922-22514-1aqaw5j.jpg

thumbnail_image-20160922-22514-1aqaw5j.jpg

image-20160922-22514-1aqaw5j.jpg

A framework of policy instruments that enable and stimulate the transition to the circular economy

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

large_photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

medium_photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

small_photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

thumbnail_photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

photo-1515534238346-fb9ae3e399d0.jpg

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)

thumbnail_bgsimage 14.png

bgsimage 14.png

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

thumbnail_wctd.jpg

wctd.jpg

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

large_Circular-City-Actions-Framework-infographic-scaled_gray background.jpeg

medium_Circular-City-Actions-Framework-infographic-scaled_gray background.jpeg

small_Circular-City-Actions-Framework-infographic-scaled_gray background.jpeg

thumbnail_Circular-City-Actions-Framework-infographic-scaled_gray background.jpeg

Circular-City-Actions-Framework-infographic-scaled_gray background.jpeg

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

![Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png](https://goldilocks-images.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Screen_Shot_2024_10_21_at_16_53_12_12858da6aa.png)

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

medium_Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png

small_Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png

thumbnail_Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png

Screen Shot 2024-10-21 at 16.53.12.png

 To continue, please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot. 

ANDRITZ and CIRC formalized a partnership to bring CIRC’s patented textile recycling technology to commercial scale with ANDRITZ’s engineering expertise and world-class equipmentDanville, VA (August 3, 2021) – CIRC, the US-based mixed textile recycling technology innovator, and ANDRITZ, an Austria-based international technology group, have formalized a partnership to bring CIRC’s patented textile recycling technology to commercial scale using ANDRITZ’s engineering expertise and world-class equipment. As part of a shared, long-term commercial vision, ANDRITZ will design and manufacture continuous process equipment for CIRC facilities globally. The agreement comes after many months of successful CIRC processing trials in various ANDRITZ’s research and development facilities.CIRC’s mission is to power the clean closet—where one’s clothes are produced from raw materials recovered from a circular textile economy, preserving the earth’s natural resources in nature. CIRC’s technology is uniquely capable of separating and recovering mixed polymer streams, specifically any blend of polyester and cotton, which accounts for most fabrics manufactured. Jorma Latva-Kokko, Vice President, Mechanical Pulping in the Paper, Fiber and Recycling division at ANDRITZ said, “CIRC’s technology is positioned to capture a significant portion of the global circular textile market, and ANDRITZ can enable that success with our expansive engineering and equipment capabilities.” ANDRITZ’s international technology group provides plants, systems, equipment, and services for various industries all over the globe. It is a world leader in customized engineering for special technologies and also in optimized solutions for mature industry applications. Through its robust pilot and commercial production testing assets and optimization capabilities, ANDRITZ can translate unique technology capabilities into market dominance.Dr. Julie Willoughby, CIRC’s Chief Scientific Officer, said, “ANDRITZ has global reach, depth of expertise, and a solid reputation for executing world-class projects. The ANDRITZ team is working shoulder-to-shoulder with CIRC to implement our vision of a circular economy for textiles and beyond. We are delighted with the high competence of ANDRITZ’s people, and we are beyond excited for our next chapters together.”CIRC and ANDRITZ are focused on rapid commercialization and growth of CIRC’s patented recycling process. The partners have not yet announced a timeline for building and commissioning the first commercial facilities.ANDRITZ GROUPInternational technology group ANDRITZ offers a broad portfolio of innovative plants, equipment, systems and services for the pulp and paper industry, the hydropower sector, the metals processing and forming industry, pumps, solid/liquid separation in the municipal and industrial sectors, as well as animal feed and biomass pelleting. Plants for power generation, flue gas cleaning, recycling, and the production of nonwovens and panelboard complete the global product and service offering. Innovative products and services in the industrial digitalization sector are offered under the brand name Metris and help customers to make their plants more user-friendly, efficient and profitable. The publicly listed group has around 26,950 employees and more than 280 locations in over 40 countries.Website: www.andritz.comCIRCCIRC is on a mission to power the clean closet with patented technology that recycles global fashion waste back into textiles, over and over again. We are protecting our planet by reducing the need and demand for petroleum, trees, and other materials harvested from nature to manufacture clothes.  CIRC is building a truly circular eco-economy for the fashion industry. Website: www.circ.earthFor more information, contact circ@thenumber29.com

AMSTERDAM — September 10, 2020 — The Fashion for Good initiated “Full Circle Textiles Project: Scaling Innovations in Cellulosic Recycling” — a first-of-its-kind consortium project — launches today. As much as 73 percent of clothing produced is sent to landfill or is incinerated and of all new clothing made, less than 1 percent of material used comes from recycled sources. Focusing on cellulosic fibers, this project aims to validate and eventually scale promising technologies in chemical recycling from a select group of innovators to tackle these issues. Leading global organizations Laudes Foundation, Birla Cellulose, Kering, PVH Corp. and Target join Fashion for Good, to explore the disruptive solutions, with the goal of creating new fibres and garments from used clothing and ultimately drive industry-wide adoption.The project’s overall aim is to investigate economically viable and scalable solutions for cellulosic chemical recycling to enable a closed loop system converting textile waste — of cotton and cotton-blend materials, to produce new man-made cellulosic fibers.Man-made cellulosic fibres (MMCF) such as viscose/rayon, Lyocell, Modal and Cupro, are most commonly derived from wood and have the third largest share in global fiber production after polyester and cotton. Man-made cellulosic fibers are of increasing importance; production of MMFCs has doubled in the last 30 years and is forecast for continued growth over the coming years.“A bold approach is needed to identify and scale innovations that drive sustainable change in the fashion industry,” said Katrin Ley, managing director, Fashion for Good. “This multi-stakeholder consortium, a first-of-its-kind, addresses the most important barriers to scaling innovation, setting the precedent for all industry players with ambitions for disruptive innovation to follow.”Over an 18-month period, project partners will collaborate with innovators, Evrnu, Infinited Fiber Company, Phoenxt, Renewcell and Tyton BioSciences, to validate the potential of their technologies in this still nascent market. The recycled content produced by four of these innovators will be converted at Birla Cellulose’s state of the art pilot plants to produce high quality cellulosic fibers. From there, fibers will move through the project partners supply chains to be manufactured into garments. Given that Infinited Fiber Co. produces industry-ready fiber using its process, the fiber will be delivered directly to the project partner’s supply chains for garment production. The project will provide an assessment of the innovator’s environmental impact, technologies, recycled output and subsequent garments. These results along with the project key learnings should determine how best to support and scale these promising solutions.“The need of the hour is to co-create sustainable solutions for the fashion industry that can be scaled rapidly and economically,” said Dilip Gaur, business director, Birla Cellulose, Aditya Birla GroupTextile recycling is a key focus for Fashion for Good as a crucial lever in driving the fashion industry towards closed loop production. A systemic change towards circularity will ultimately reduce the environmental impact of textile waste and potentially eliminate our dependence on virgin materials entirely. Furthermore, producing man-made cellulosic fibres through chemical recycling can help preserve ancient and endangered forests. Scalable solutions in high quality textile recycling technologies are therefore urgently needed.“Next generation solutions are the path to meeting the climate and biodiversity targets that scientists are calling for by 2030. We’ve seen promising momentum in recent years as we’ve worked with brands, producers and innovators to build strong market demand and Identified a great pipeline of game changing technologies. Now we need investment and broad industry adoption to make these Next Gen Solutions a commercially available reality,” siad Nicole Rycroft, founder and executive director, CanopyPioneering CollaborationThe unique consortium of brands, fiber producers, manufacturers and innovators is an intentional convening of essential stakeholders in line with key learnings identified in the recently published report by Fashion for Good and Boston Consulting Group “Financing the Transformation in the Fashion Industry”. In order to bring disruptive solutions to scale, the industry needs bespoke consortiums of brands, supply chain partners, innovators, and investors with a shared technology focus to concentrate resources and de-risk investments.“Chemical recycling faces multiple barriers to scale and industry adoption; a key barrier being risk-tolerant investment for innovations that can enable testing, refinement and scale. We hope that our investment in the Full Circle Textiles Project will enable wider adoption and catalytic investment across the industry to map the course of change together,” said Anita Chester, head of Materials, Laudes Foundation (formerly C&A Foundation).The formation of this targeted consortium expands on previous pilot project structures and is the first attempt at such a multi-stakeholder collaboration in the fashion industry, to create a streamlined ecosystem that drives a structured innovation process and ultimately, industry-wide adoption.Mobilizing An Industry“Financing the Transformation in the Fashion Industry” details further actions required to scale sustainable solutions including a concerted, industry-wide effort to provide the incentives, financial means and focus to accelerate transformation to sustainable and circular practices. Thus, through this Project and its consortium, Fashion for Good hopes to inspire other stakeholders to follow suit in supporting chemical recycling innovators to trial and ultimately secure offtake, catalyzing the transformation to a truly circular economy.To officially kickoff the Project, Fashion for Good hosted an online media briefing and panel discussion with guest panelists, Dilip Gaur, business director of the Aditya Birla Group; Samantha Sims, vice president, Environmental Sustainability & Product Stewardship, PVH Corp.; Christine Goulay, head of Sustainable Innovation, Kering; Nicole Rycroft, founder and executive director, Canopy; and Katrin Ley, managing director of Fashion for Good. The media briefing outlined the scope of the project, introduced the selected innovators and consortium partners, as well as opening the floor to questions from invited media.

Recycling clothes is a complex job. Most textile recyclers today can only recycle and recover one material. That means your polyester-cotton blend T-shirt may be recycled, but only one of the two materials will be salvageable to use again.Then there’s the question of whether or not that fiber will be strong enough to use on its own entirely? Or does it need to be blended with virgin fibers to keep it going.Peter Majeranowski and Conor Hartman of Circ have a solution that can solve this. They’ve raised $8 million from Patagonia, Japanese conglomerate Marubeni, and Alante Capital, and Card Sound Capital, to put the technology to work in textiles that will debut later this year.The path till date has been fortuitous, but long — a decade in the making. Circ has its roots in biofuels, actually: it was originally named Tyton BioScience, and was shepherded by a Polish scientist who was looking for a non-food crop to be used in biofuels. He had settled on tobacco. As Majeranowski went into business with the scientist, he learned that “he was a very good salesman.” Yet he had not thought through how the tobacco would be processed exactly.“We could see the edge over the cliff, in terms of our company,” says Majeranowski. “Nobody wanted to invest in biofuels at the time. We were scrambling to look for new applications.”Consulting with researchers, he learned that a similar hydrothermal processing system could be used in textile recycling. In fact, the cotton-polyester combo, Hartman says, is “like looking at plants. Cotton is the cellulose, and polyester is the lingin.”Since then the duo have been working on refining this recycling process which would enable them to not only recover the polyester, but also the cotton, and in a manner that it would keep the integrity of the fibers in tact, says Hartman. This is the key distinction in their innovation, he adds. Breaking down polyester to its monomers results in a high-quality cotton cellulose, Majeranowski explains, which can serve as a replacement for tree pulp (needed to make cellulosic fibers like lyocell, rayon/viscose, modal). “Using recycled PET as in plastic bottles just prolongs use by one to two years. It’s not a great solution. It’s better than putting it in the landfill immediately. But now, with this technology, it can go from a bottle to board short to a board short again.”Their timing has coincided with the fashion industry’s search for better recycling options, and increasing awareness of their environmental footprint. “It’s been like drinking from a fire hose with people knocking on our door,” Majeranowski says.Though they’re still a startup, Circ will be putting their textiles to the test, and introducing them to the market later this year. Working with contract manufacturers around the country, and a facility in Danville, VA, Circ hopes to “keep materials in the economy [and in use] for as long as possible,” says Hartman.While they’re focused primarily on polyester and cotton blends right now, Majeranowski adds they’ll be including more materials in their recycling roster in the future and can handle small amounts of spandex in clothing currently. Spandex has been one of the most challenging materials to repurpose in fashion, but he notes that in limited amounts (less than 5 percent typically), it can be extracted in the recycling process.Circ uses chemical recycling, a term that troubles Majeranowski. As environmentalists, they’re not crazy about what “chemicals” suggests but he assures that it’s “responsible chemistry.”The startup hopes to make a serious dent in the massive global consumption of textiles over the next decade. “We don’t know exactly how many clothes are produced each year. It is somewhere in the ballpark of 100 billion garments. And our goal is to recycle 10 percent of that, or 10 billion garments, by 2030,” he says.Circ’s efforts can keep clothes in a circular loop, but it doesn’t solve one problem that plagues most brands: microplastics. Because polyester is fashion-friendly, in that it holds shape well and is durable, it’s a popular choice, particularly in the world of performance. While some brands have decided to use all natural materials, Majeranowski says, “That is ambitious and worthy, but definitely hard to achieve.”There’s also the headache of collecting used clothing to put it through recycling facilities. New legislation in Europe will prevent anyone from throwing textiles in landfills, starting in 2025. That will then require an additional infrastructure to collect used clothing, and ensure it doesn’t get burned or thrown away. Though the problem may seem daunting, Hartman says, “there is more plastic in our clothes than in plastic bottles. 50 million tons going in our clothing versus 20 million tons in bottles. We produce more polyester clothing every year, made of oil basically, than we do plastic bottles, and that’s why we’re trying to solve this problem.”The question of competition doesn’t worry them either. With more chemical recyclers breaking through, comparisons are common with solutions such as H&M’s Green Machine. “The Green Machine is a circular solution for the polyester fraction, but as we understand it, the cotton is recovered only as a cellulose powder that goes into other secondary non-textile applications as a byproduct. They recently announced that they are going to figure out how to make that cellulose powder into a textile material, but I don’t believe that it’s happened yet,” Majeranowski says.He goes on to argue that all of these efforts are needed collectively to solve the global fashion waste problem.“It’s important to note just how big the textile market is. If all the chemical recycling technologies out there were fully scaled and had 10 major factories, we’d still never touch elbows due to the significant size of the total addressable market. We are talking about 50 million tons per year for polyester for clothing, 26 million tons per year of cotton, and 150 million trees of pulp per year for cellulosic fibers.”So all recycling ideas are welcome at the table.

United States

medium_blob

small_blob

thumbnail_blob

blob

Circ utilises chemical recycling to recycle the polyester-cotton blends while keeping the integrity of the fibres in tact 

Circ

<p>Circ utilises chemical recycling processes to recover both polyester and cotton in poly-cotton blended fibres, keeping the integrity of both fibres kept in tact. Whilst still in the early start-up phase, Circ's technology is capable of recycling two tons of textile waste a day, with plans to expand into other fibre such as spandex.&nbsp;</p>