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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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This collection comes from the <a href="https://www.circle-economy.com/circular-jobs-initiative/" target="_blank">Circular Jobs Initiative</a>, an initiative of Circle Economy.

The workforce is an essential lever for transforming our economy from linear to circular. The Circular Jobs Initiative aims to maximise the employment opportunities offered by the circular economy. It provides practical support and insights to businesses and governments that want to adopt circular strategies that have a positive social impact.The Circular Jobs Initiative works through three focus areas: 

- Upskilling the workforce

- Quality of work

- Inclusive job opportunities 

CJI has defined circular jobs as any occupation that directly involves or indirectly supports one of the strategies of the circular economy. It distinguishes between three types of circular jobs: core, enabling and indirectly circular jobs.

**Core circular jobs** are all jobs that ensure the closure of raw material cycles, including jobs in repair, renewable energy, waste and resource management. 

**‍Enabling circular jobs** are jobs that remove barriers for and enable the acceleration and upscaling of core circular activities, including jobs that arise in leasing, education, design and digital technology. 

**Indirectly circular jobs** are jobs that occur in other sectors that do not play a direct role in furthering the transition to the circular economy but can still adopt circular strategies. They include jobs that provide services to core circular strategies, including jobs in information services, logistics and the public sector.

The Knowledge Hub Collection includes examples of circular jobs, publications, reports, case studies and policies different organisations, governments and businesses are already using to advocate for a person-centred circular economy. 

Visit the <a href="https://www.circle-economy.com/circular-jobs-initiative/" target="_blank">Circular Jobs Initiative</a>

Visit the <a href="http://jobsmonitor.circle-economy.com/" target="_blank">Circular Jobs Monitor</a>

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Circular Jobs Initiative

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Policy 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 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

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)

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

Fashion and Textiles

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

Utilise waste streams as a source of secondary resources and recover waste for reuse and recycling

Use waste as a resource

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

Give products and parts another life after their end-of-use

Maximise lifetime of products after use

Industry peers to industry peer collaboration to create joint value and identify synergies

Industry collaboration

Collection programmes that process products and parts for reuse or recycling within other industries

Open loop collection

Using waste materials that have been processed and recycled to produce new products within other industries

Using open loop recycled materials

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes

Govern the Transition

Institutional design to enable circularity

 Regulation

Monitoring & enforcement

Asset Management

Maintenance to extend useful life

Economic Frameworks

Extended Producer Responsibility

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

CE Materials

Impacts

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Industries

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Materials

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

Policies

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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

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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

Le tri des textiles et chaussures usagés a des effets positifs sur l’environnement et apporte également des bénéfices économiques et sociétaux. Tous les vêtements, foulards, bonnets, tous les draps, serviettes et nappes, ainsi que toutes les chaussures, que ce soit pour homme, femme ou pour enfant. Même usés, ils peuvent être valorisés ! Comment donner une deuxième vie aux textiles  et chaussures, même abimés ? Comment en prendre soin ? 100% réutilisable et recyclable 

 Additional tools  Extended producer responsibility (EPR) can be defined as “an environmental policy approach in which a producer’s responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product’s life cycle.”[1] Initially introduced as a concept by Thomas Lindhqvist of Sweden in 1990, EPR is typically understood to involve a shift in responsibility (administratively, financially or physically) from governments or municipalities to producers as well as an encouragement of producers to take environmental considerations into account during the design and manufacture phases of product development. EPR seeks to achieve a reduction in the environmental impact of products, throughout their lifespan, from production through end-of-life. In the European Union, extended producer responsibility is mandatory within the context of the WEEE, Batteries, and ELV Directives, which put the responsibility for the financing of collection, recycling and responsible end-of-life disposal of WEEE, batteries, accumulators and vehicles on producers. The Packaging Directive also indirectly invokes the EPR principle by requiring Member States (MS) to take necessary measures to ensure that systems are set up for the collection and recycling of packaging waste.  Additional waste streams for which producer responsibility organisations have been most commonly identified within the European Union include tyres, waste oil, paper and card, and construction and demolition waste. However, a much broader range of waste streams are subject to obligatory or voluntary producer responsibility systems in some MS, including: farm plastics, medicines and medical waste, plastic bags, photo-chemicals and chemicals, newspapers, refrigerants, pesticides and herbicides, and lamps, light bulbs and fittings.  In the European Union, the 2005 Thematic Strategy on the Prevention and Recycling of Waste highlights producer responsibility as a potential policy tool for increasing recycling in areas where market factors do not otherwise financially incentivise collection and recycling. The 2011 Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe adds to this by encouraging the adoption of measures to extend producer responsibility to cover the whole product lifecycle via new business models, guidance on take-back and support for repair services. EPR is thus an important vehicle in moving towards European resource efficiency objectives by minimising the impact of products on the environment and using resources in a more sustainable way. The European Parliament, for example, in its Resolution on a resource efficient Europe of 24 May 2012[2] calls on the EU Commission to examine options for setting up EU-wide extended producer responsibility schemes with the goal of improving resource use efficiency across the EU, including in Member States that presently have below average reuse and recycling rates.  The current project is situated in the context of the need to develop guidance on the application of EPR at the EU level and the possibility for the extension of the EPR concept, as stated in the “Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe.” It is a continuation of the work undertaken in the study “Use of economic instruments and waste management performance” which examined EPR systems, among other economic instruments, as methods for maximising waste management performance. Aim of this Project As demonstrated in recent studies issued by the European Commission, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes, among other tools, could be a solution towards a more resource efficient European society. This study, launched in October 2012, seeks to identify performing EPR schemes for different waste streams (e.g. ELV, WEEE, Batteries, Packaging, Paper, Used Oil) and prepare detailed case studies, in order to identify common characteristics across schemes, which could serve as a guide for improving the effectiveness of such schemes. The study should allow the Commission to formulate new proposals to ensure an optimal use of EPR schemes. The Project Objectives The objective of the project is to describe, compare and analyse different types of EPR systems operating in the EU in order to identify the necessary conditions and best practices for their functioning. Based on the results of this analysis, different options will be analysed which may be used by the Commission to ensure the diffusion/adoption of these optimal conditions by the Member States. The scope of the project is the EU-27 plus Croatia. [1] OECD [2] European Parliament, Prcedure 2011/2068(INI) 

France

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Refashion

To achieve sustainability targets, policymakers and practitioners in certain countries are introducing extended producer responsibility policy (EPR). Under such policy, producers are required to assume the costs of collection, treating, and recycling of their end-of-life products. EPR policy is generally lacking in the textiles industry, though in 2007, France was the first country to declare a legal framework for managing textile waste through EPR policy with the goal of holding textile producers responsible for the collection and recycling of end-of-use (EoU) clothing, linen, and shoes. Following France's example, other countries may follow suit and implement EPR policy as a means of managing post-consumer textiles. Without such measures and effective enforcement mechanisms to back them, producer accountability for waste management could continue to fall by the wayside.

EPR Policy: France's National Programme for Textiles Recovery

Business case

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

Efficiency gains on operations or transactions either through cultural or technological shifts

Productivity

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (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

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

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

Valorise waste streams - closed loop

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within other industries

Valorise waste streams - open loop

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

Working together with stakeholders and parties in other unrelated industries to implement circular economy strategies and opportunities

Cross-industry projects, pilots

Facilitate discussions and meetings between internal team members to identify circular opportunities

Dialogue with internal stakeholders

Integrating circular economy thinking into employee evaluations that are tied to professional compensation

Financial incentives tied to circular economy

'Inform' increases the overall levels of awareness and builds the necessary skills and knowledge around the circular economy to foster long-term change.

Inform

'Mobilise' sets the direction of and builds momentum towards long-term change, while also determining how this direction is determined and governed.

Mobilise

'Incentivise' sends market signals and support to businesses, citizens and governments to promote certain activities.

Incentivise

Information campaigns

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

Refashion / Eco TLC est l’éco-organisme de la Filière Textile d’habillement, Linge de maison et Chaussure. Il assure, pour le compte de plus de 5000 entreprises, la prise en charge de la prévention et de la gestion de la fin de vie de leurs produits mis sur le marché grand public. Après 10 ans d’existence, Eco TLC change de nom et devient Refashion, un nom unique pour tous, professionnels comme grand public. Refashion rappelle un ancrage d’origine et ouvre aux champs des possibles et d’intervention : réparer, réutiliser, recycler, réenvisager, repenser, réinventer, reconsidérer avec nos partenaires et avec les citoyens. Refashion est là pour réunir : simple, accessible, lisible par tous. Au cœur de l’écosystème de la filière, Refashion propose des outils, des services, des informations qui facilitent et accélèrent la transformation et participe au financement de la transition vers l’économie circulaire. Retrouvez via ce portail, l’accès à chacun des sites Refashion : Professionnel / Citoyen / Eco design 

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Paris

ECO TLC is the only organization accredited by the French public authorities to comply with the European environmental standards regarding sustainable waste management. It covers clothing, household linen and footwear. ECO TLC is a non profit private company, which aims to achieve 100% reuse and recycling.

Eco TLC

Eco TLC is the only organization accredited by the French public authorities to cover for the textile's industry's legal obligation to manage waste sustainably under France's Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. The EPR policy requires producers, distributors, and importers to responsibly manage all end of life (EoL) products marketed in the country by either creating their own approved recycling program, or contributing financially to a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) accredited by law to provide for them. Eco TLC is a not-for-profit private company directed by a board of industrials and ultimately working toward 100% reuse and recycling of clothing, linen, and footwear. The company currently represents 95% of the French industry. Its current role is to address waste management and resource preservation by fostering the collection, recycling, and recovery of used textiles. Eco TLC also facilitates industry stakeholder collaboration by uniting designers, producers, distributors, local authorities, etc. around the common purpose of a circular economy transition.

Refashion/Eco TLC: the Producer Responsibility Organization for France's textile sector

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

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

Activities to clean, decorate, and restore products back to working condition for original or new purposes

Refurbishment, remanufacturing, renovation

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

Developing or utilising online platforms to enable circular economy opportunities through information, product or service offering

Online platforms

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

Research and Development

Develop infrastructure to support resource cycling

 Develop research, structure knowledge, encourage innovation networks and disseminate findings with integrity


Strengthen and advance knowledge

Manufactured goods, such as vehicles, textiles, appliances and equipment and their associated production processes are big employers but:
- production processes often rely on fossil fuels and currently drive one-third of the overshoot on the climate change planetary boundary due to its GHG production, 
- material- and energy-intensive industrial activities are linked to deforestation and drive 15% on both the land use and freshwater planetary boundaries, 
- manufacturing goods results in substantial amounts of hazardous industrial waste and leaks chemicals into the environment.

Here, circular solutions must tackle the full value chain, but material demand must also shrink: this will necessitate a societal shift to favouring sufficiency over excess and reducing consumption to sustainable levels. Our four key solutions for manufactured goods are:
- Mainstream industrial symbiosis and efficiency : Achieve process improvements, scrap diversion and reduction in yield losses through greater industrial symbiosis and efficiency. Foster tighter collaboration within and between industries to deliver powerful material and emissions savings.
- Extend the lifetime of machinery, equipment, and goods: Maximise the lifetime of goods that serve our daily needs to bring a number of environmental benefits. 
- Buy what's needed: Reduce the number of purchases of common electronic goods, appliances, and other equipment to sufficiency levels. 
- Eschew fast fashion in favour of sustainable textiles: Drastically reduce new clothing purchases. All used clothing should go on to be repaired, reused or, if needed, recycled appropriately. Prioritise natural and local textile manufacturing, as well as higher-quality and more durable garments. 




👕📱 Consumer Goods

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

Businesses

Thematic Areas

City Stakeholders

 20th May 2021
AMSTERDAM – The amount of discarded textiles is increasing annually, with projections of further acceleration. Although some of this waste is reused, a significant proportion is diverted for recycling. To create the necessary infrastructure to effectively recycle these textiles, an understanding of their material composition is needed. The current textile sorting system, which relies heavily on manual input, cannot provide accurate insights given often unreliable and absent clothing labels.
Today, Fashion for Good launches the Sorting for Circularity Project to address this challenge on a scale greater than ever before. Bringing together key brands and industry leaders from across Europe, the project will conduct a comprehensive textile waste analysis using more accurate, innovative Near Infrared (NIR) technology, while also mapping textile recycler’s capabilities. This research will lead to an open digital platform to match textile waste from sorters with recyclers, enabling their alignment and building an infrastructure towards greater circularity in the years to come. “The aim of the 18 month project is to create a greater link between textile sorters and textile recyclers; stimulating a recycling market for unwanted textiles that can generate new revenue streams for sorters. Traditionally, the sorting industry generates income through the sale of reusable textiles, with the remainder being downcycled, incinerated or landfilled. To achieve a circular system, a new end-market for non-reusable textile is required, with an infrastructure and digital matching system that can support activities of sorters and recyclers” – Katrin Ley, Managing Director – Fashion for Good
The Sorting for Circularity Project is driven by Fashion for Good with catalytic funding provided by Laudes Foundation and facilitated by brand partners, adidas, BESTSELLER, and Zalando, as well as Inditex as an external partner. Fashion for Good partners Arvind Limited, Birla Cellulose, Levi Strauss & Co., Otto and PVH Corp. are participating as part of the wider working group. Circle Economy leads the creation and implementation of the methodology, with support from Refashion, to assess textile waste composition. Both organisations build on their extensive experience from similar projects, such as the Interreg Fibersort Project and previous textile composition analyses.
The analysis will provide the most representative snapshot of textile waste composition generated in Europe. What is more, Fashion for Good and Circle Economy will map the current and future capabilities of textile recyclers in the region – illuminating crucial gaps between the sorting and recycling industry, and the innovation, investment and policy changes required to accelerate circularity.
Findings from this research will ultimately enable sorters to take action through the support of a digital platform that matches their textile waste with recyclers. This open-source platform will bring greater transparency, spark greater harmonisation between the industries, and ensure the learnings contribute to foundational change for the industry at large.
The project brings together the largest industrial textile sorters in the North-West European region; including the Boer Group, I:CO (a part of SOEX Group), JMP Wilcox (a part of Textile Recycling International) and TEXAID, placing key industry players firmly at the heart of the project and driving the industry towards greater circularity.
The French accredited Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) eco-organisation Refashion, a key project partner, provides input into the methodology and leads the NIR scanner calibration. Aligning the Sorting for Circularity Project with their own study in France ensures methodologies and findings can be standardised, compared and implemented on a larger scale. 

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Amsterdam

Europe

Fashion for Good is a global initiative to inspire change and drive the collective movement to make fashion a force for good. We work directly with the fashion industry to innovate towards solutions that are better for people and the planet and empower behaviour change through our sustainable fashion Museum. 

Fashion for Good

Fashion for Good launched their Sorting for Circularity Project in May of 2021 to help drive textile recycling through technological innovation. The 18 month-long project utilizes Near Infrared (NIR) technology to conduct an accurate, comprehensive textile waste analysis across Europe and maps the capabilities of textile recyclers. The project's research will aid in the creation of an open digital platform with the ability to match textile waste from sorters to recyclers. The platform is intended to foster alignment between these stakeholders in the development of circular infrastructure.