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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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Business case

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

Jobs

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

Producing basic and specialty chemicals, inks, agricultural chemical such as fertilisers and pesticides, plastics including packaging, and rubber

Chemical and Plastic

Using materials that can be easily reused or recycled after use

Reusable, recyclable materials and inputs

Develop infrastructure to support resource cycling

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

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

Before and after the catwalk, the fashion industry is inherently ugly.Textiles account for 10% of global carbon emissions. The industry is the world’s second-biggest industrial polluter, behind oil. In Australia, an estimated 3m tonnes of textiles goes into landfill each year.The ability to recycle fabric is, say industry veterans Adrian Jones and Graham Ross, a “holy grail ... for the industry and the planet” that will help close the loop between resource-intensive fabric production and fast-growing piles of textile waste.Jones and Ross have pioneered and trademarked – with input from the CSIRO and the Queensland University of Technology – a small-scale and environmentally friendly process that takes blended fabrics and reduces them to their raw components.“We often seem to care more about old plastic bottles than we care about our favourite T-shirts,” Jones told Guardian Australia.The immediate benefit of fabric recycling is to divert increasing amounts of waste from landfill. Trends such as fast fashion and minimalism have the unintended consequences of increasing fabric waste. In Australia, 75% of people throw textiles away each year, a 2017 YouGov survey found; 30% tossed out more than 10 garments.“The nature of the fashion industry is you start out with the best fibre or the best fabric you and and make it into a garment,” says Jones, who has worked in fashion for big retailers in the UK and Australia for 30 years. “There is such intrinsic value in the fibres. But the way we value them doesn’t reflect that. The retail prices don’t reflect that. In the industry now we spend half the year marking [the prices] down as quickly as we can”Long-term, recycling can reduce the industry’s reliance on resource-intensive production methods used to make new fabrics. Cotton requires vast quantities of water. Polyester is made from petroleum and takes up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.Graham Ross and Adrian Jones, who says waste from textiles is a global problem. Photograph: David KellyRoss, a former endurance athlete who launched a sustainable athletic clothing line, says major apparel companies now have a stake in ending those wasteful production practices. Companies such as Nike now make products from large quantities of recycled waste, while H&M is increasing embracing recycled polyester.But while textile recycling is not itself new, studies show many existing large-scale processes provide negligible benefits and can be as environmentally harmful as the production of raw fabrics. It also remains uncommon.“There’s no textile recycling industry in this country,” Ross says. “We’ve got a lot of waste going into landfill and trying to fill that gap. The fashion industry is starting to use more sustainable materials and recycled polyester is on a fast uptake.”The process pioneered by their company, BlockTexx, is “about the size of a craft brewery” and testing has show it to be efficient and sustainable. The company is in the process of seeking to establish its first facility in south-east Queensland, recycling about 10,000 tonnes a year.The focus will be on recycling commercial fabrics – old towels and bedsheets from hotels and hospitals, work uniforms and unwanted clothing not given to charities.The “separation of fabric technology” turns cotton to cellulose and polyester to flake.“They don’t have to go back into textiles, either,” Ross said. “A company might end up using its old uniforms for new office furniture. You’re not using virgin resources.”BlockTexx also plans to build a marketplace for recycled textiles.“The whole process is novel and unique,” Jones said. “We certainly see the fact we can scale this. We see this as being an international solution ... as being a model that can be expanded internationally. This is a global problem, if our technology works and can keep large scales of textiles out of landfill, then we’ll look to scale it up as quickly as we can.“If it’s ripped or torn or stained then you have to put that into your landfill. We can take those torn, stained and ripped clothes and process them back into a reusable resource.”

Out of galleryUnlocking the value of textile wasteThe ‘holy grail’ for sustainability in textiles and fashionBlockTexx is a clean technology company that recovers polyester and cellulose from textiles and clothing. ​ Our mission is to divert textiles and clothing away from landfill and accelerate the global textile recycling industry towards a sustainable future. ​ BlockTexx turns textile waste into a resource, stimulates the production of new products and meets consumers demands to reduce the environmental impact of our everyday clothing.   ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Textiles; recycled, reused“What we’ve been looking for’: How Australian start-up BlockTexx is turning discarded clothes into raw, commodity-level plastic”"While countless industry executives will continue to cite the circular economy in conference speeches, it is the work of companies such as BlockTexx which is transforming that rhetoric from hollow green wash into a viable solution."“a holy grail ... for the industry and the planet that will help close the loop between resource-intensive fabric production and fast-growing piles of textile waste.”“What the BlockTexx solution will enable us to do is send those items we can’t reuse back through the supply chain to be turned into their raw materials.”What we doS.O.F.T. - Separation of fibre technology BlockTexx owns proprietary technology that separates polyester and cotton materials such as clothes, sheets and towels of any colour or condition back into their high value raw materials of PET and Cellulose for reuse as new products for all industries. 

The recovered PET is polymerised to create virgin-quality S.O.F.T. branded rPET plastic pellets and polyester fibre suitable for use in textiles, packaging, building products. 

The recovered cellulose is processed to create S.O.F.T. branded cellulose powder for use in many industries such as textile, pharmaceutical and food. ​ BlockTexx is leading a global movement toward a circular economy for our customers and production partners, by developing planet focussed solutions that divert textile waste from landfill and into sustainable products.  ​AwardedClean Technology ​2019 - 50 TO WATCH

Mike Wheeler - Inside WasteBlockTexx, Australia’s first textile recycling facility, which will divert around 4,000 tonnes of textiles from landfill in its first year, is underway.In the first year of operation, BlockTexx anticipates the facility, in Logan, Southeast Queensland, will recycle around 4,000 tonnes of textiles, create up to 30 new full-time jobs and up to $43 million economic impact to the local area.Over the next four years, BlockTexx anticipates the creation of more than 140 jobs and more than 50,000 tonnes of recycled textile and a total CO2 offset of 1,250,000 tonnes (based on annualised amounts).BlockTexx is working closely with Queensland’s well-known engineering and construction company, Wiley, on the first facility.BlockTexx co-founders Adrian Jones and Graham Ross said their start-up has been made possible thanks to a trifecta of elements: a fundamental shift in the country prioritising sustainable design and solutions; partnering and engaging with ethically minded organisations; and a clear strategy towards ‘breaking down the fibres of misconception’.​​”BlockTexx is now scaling our textile resource recovery technology,” Ross said. “The S.O.F.T. (separation of fibre technology) is a commercial scale solution to eradicate textile waste and breaking down no-longer needed clothing and textiles.”BlockTexx’s textile recovery facility is world leading, combining chemical separation processes and advanced manufacturing.Wiley will oversee the delivery of BlockTexx’s new facility, installation of the equipment and commissioning the plant.BlockTexx recently undertook a Series A capital raise of $5.5 million, thanks to a mix of private investment, grant funds from three tiers of Government injection (including a $997,617 Federal commitment and $155,000 from Logan City Council), and support from seed investors.

An Australian startup working on a process to recycle textiles by turning worn-out fabric into raw materials says it has funding to build a world-first commercial-scale plant in Queensland.The federal government held a first national roundtable on textile waste on Wednesday – recognition of a piling-up problem that results in Australians discarding an estimated 780,000 tonnes of textile waste each year, according to a 2020 national waste report.The problem is exacerbated by the lack of an effective recycling process. Studies show many large-scale garment recycling systems provide negligible benefits and can be as environmentally harmful as producing raw fabrics.BlockTexx, an Australian company that has developed its process with researchers at the Queensland University of Technology, hopes it can help “close the loop” by diverting textiles from landfill, and at the same time replacing virgin material.The company’s founders, Graham Ross and Adrian Jones, say the technology has been refined during the pandemic and they now have the $5.5m investment needed to build a first large-scale facility at Logan, south of Brisbane.Ross and Jones – both veterans of the clothing and fashion industry – say they have enough supply and demand to expand, before the first plant has been built.“From this original idea we always knew we were early to the market, but also a lot of technical barriers we need to overcome,” Ross said.“We always seem to talk about textile waste. We always think about how can we take that and turn that into a valuable product.“The byproduct is we’re solving environmental issues.”Alice Payne, an associate professor at QUT and the program leader at the centre for a waste free world, said problems with textile waste have been accelerated since the 1980s by global trade policies. Lowered tariffs encouraged more imports. Cheaper fabrics allowed the phenomenon of “fast fashion” to flourish.“Clothes are cheaper than ever – it’s possible to buy more and more,” Payne said.“In parallel we’ve seen this stark rise in consumption of synthetic fibres. They’re low cost, they have an ease of consumption compared to natural fibres.“When you blend a synthetic fibre with a natural fibre you create a monstrous hybrid. The common problem with all attempts at recycling is the more mixed material you have, the more problem you have reusing those resources.”The process developed by BlockTexx and QUT researchers – called “separation of fabric technology” – is noteworthy because it is designed to handle hybrid fabrics. It turns cotton to cellulose and polyester to flake for industrial uses like injection moulding.Their aim for the first plant is to recycle about 10,000 tonnes a year by the end of 2022 – initially focusing mostly on commercial fabrics, including old towels and sheets from hotels and hospitals.Ross said that after two years of lab testing, they were comfortable they could commercialise the process, and that it was producing raw recycled materials of very high quality.“We’ve now got a product where we can consistently compare our product to virgin material,” he said.The company would begin to recycle post-consumer waste when it scales up capacity. Plans have been drawn up for a 40,000-tonne plant. BlockTexx envisages licensing its technology on a global scale.“[The size of the first plant] is significant, but equally only a drop in the ocean of the amount of textiles going to landfill,” Ross said.“This is definitely a global model. The world has a textile problem. Our solution needs to go to the problem, because we can’t bring the problem to the solution.“We see ourselves as a technology company. We already have several large waste and textile companies around the world saying this is really interesting.“The other smart thing about our model is that it’s very modular – it can be run on a small scale and we can expand it.”Jones said: “Whatever happens from now, because a solution exists, we can’t go backwards.“I’m not trying to say that from tomorrow we’re not going to put textiles into landfill, we’re not going to export textile waste.“But we’ve now got the opportunity to do something. It really does move the discussion from the art of the possible to the art of the practical and that’s really important in this space.”

Australian start-up BlockTexx has begun work on what it claims will the the first textile recycling plant capable of separating and recycling blends of cotton and polyester fibres at scale.LOGAN - Australian start-up BlockTexx has begun work on what it claims will the the first textile recycling plant capable of separating and recycling blends of cotton and polyester fibres at scale.The company has acquired a site at Logan, Queensland, and is now working on the final design for the plant, with the process of ordering plant equipment for the site already underway.BlockTexx says production will begin early next year, using the company's proprietary Separation of Fibre Technology (SOFT) solution, at the plant which will recycle around 4,000 tonnes of textiles in its first year.The company is working with Queensland engineering and construction company Wiley on the plant which it says will produce more than 50,000 tonnes of recycled textiles - which might otherwise have ended up in landfill - over the next four years.Other players, such as Lenzing, Sodra and Worn Again, are also working to separate and recycle blended fibres but BlockTexx believes it will be the first to achieve this commercially at scale.BlockTexx co-founder Graham Ross said: "BlockTexx is now scaling our textile resource recovery technology. The SOFT is a commercial scale solution to eradicate textile waste and breaking down no-longer needed clothing and textiles."We are excited to work with Wiley on the development of our first commercial scale facility. Wiley has more than 100 years of experience in process engineering solutions, which means they were an obvious choice to work with us on this vital project.“Designing the facility has been an engineering challenge for all involved. We have needed to pull knowledge from across Wiley's organisation using learnings of the past to build a future circular economy operation.“Wiley have been with us since the early design concepts, and we are pleased that they will be right next to us as we open the doors to our first facility later this year.”Wiley’s CEO Robert Barron commented: “Our core values are about creating a better future through smart and practical design solutions and when we heard about what BlockTexx were trying to achieve with this new process, we wanted to be a part of it.“We love a challenge and collaborating to create Australia’s first textile recycling facility certainly sits in that bucket. This project aligns with our goals to work with clients on sustainable projects that make a difference in the world.“Our team has been able to draw on their experience in manufacturing across many other sectors to bring a wealth of knowledge that has allowed Wiley to help BlockTexx meet their goals. We can’t wait to see how this facility makes a difference.”BlockTexx recently undertook a Series A capital funding round of AU$5.5 million, featuring a mix of private investment, grant funds from three tiers of Government injection, including nearly AU$1 million from the national government, and support from seed investors.


 Efforts to keep old textiles out of landfill traditionally have hit a major snag – what to do with the significant portion of products made from a blend of cotton and polyester, which can’t be recycled? But a new solution from BlockTexx promises to solve that problem. The Sydney-based company, founded less than two years ago by retail veterans Adrian Jones and Graham Ross, has found a way to break down poly-cotton blended textiles into their raw materials so they can be repurposed as other products.  The process, called SOFT (separation of fabric technology), is able to recover roughly 98 per cent of an item’s raw materials in the form of rPET pellets and cellulose powder, which have a wide range of uses in various industries, and produces only water as waste. It is a world-first technology, according to BlockTexx, which has filed a patent application with IP Australia.  BlockTexx is still in the process of selecting the location of its first recycling facility – it expects to be operational in Q1 2020 – but the solution has already garnered interest from major players in the retail space, including youth fashion chain General Pants and signage supplier AFI Branding. General Pants is launching a trial program, where it will send items it can no longer sell or donate to BlockTexx instead of to landfill, which is the current solution.   “We already donate items that are usable but not resellable to charities we have relationships with like the Salvos, Vinnies and Red Cross. But the remainder, unfortunately, goes to waste,” Sacha Laing, CEO of General Pants, told Inside Retail Weekly.  “What the BlockTexx solution will enable us to do is send those items we can’t reuse back through the supply chain to be turned into their raw materials.”  Those raw materials – rPET pellets and cellulose powder – are in high demand in the textile, food, building and other industries, where they are used to make everything from eco-friendly textiles to plastic bottles.  “What’s great is we’re not just recycling textiles,” Laing said, “we’re helping other industries reduce the amount of importing of those raw materials they need to do, which is great for the environment and the economy.” The BlockTexx partnership is just one part of General Pants’ long-term vision to achieve a net-zero-carbon footprint. Later this year, the retailer will launch denim “amnesty” bins in stores, where customers can drop off unwanted jeans to be recycled, rather than throwing them in the trash. It also plans to stop providing plastic bags and switch to more sustainable energy solutions, such as LED lighting.  General Pants may not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of sustainable retailers, but the privately held company has a solid track record of considering the environmental impact of its operations. “It’s something that is very close to all of our hearts on a personal and professional level, but we’re not the sort of business that talks a lot about it… We just get on it with it,” Laing said.  According to Laing, however, General Pants too often has been held back by the lack of technology available to deal with one of the biggest contributors to the fashion industry’s carbon footprint – textile waste. “The lack of technology, or the speed at which technology develops in this space, particularly the infrastructure for textile recycling, is the biggest challenge,” he said.  “Part of what we’re doing [with BlockTexx] is developing a reverse logistics solution that’s commercially viable, so we can move products from our stores and customers’ homes back through our supply chain to BlockTexx, and ultimately back into industry.” AFI Branding, a signage specialist that works with most major retailers in Australia, including Myer, Lovisa and Adidas, is also tackling the reverse logistics issue.  The company is launching a takeback scheme on August 1, which will enable retailers to return their fabric signage to AFI at the end of the season or sale, rather than throwing it away. AFI will bundle the signage and send it to BlockTexx for recycling.  “Once BlockTexx converts [the old signage] into rPET pellets, we can reuse some of it to make our next batch of fabric,” said Glenn Watson, managing director of AFI Branding.  AFI’s signage is 100 per cent polyester, which can take between 20 and 200 years to break down in landfill, according to ethical fashion guide Good On You. Watson estimates the company produces over 1000 tonnes of signage a year.   “We recently started packaging up just the offcuts of what we produce here, before it even goes to the retailer, and just our waste amounts to approximately 40 tonnes per year,” he said.  This figure reveals the scope of the problem BlockTexx is dealing with. In 2017, the fashion industry globally was producing an estimated 92 million tonnes of textile waste annually, according to The Boston Consulting Group. By 2030, that figure is expected to climb to 148 million tonnes.  And much of it is poly-cotton blended textiles, which cannot be recycled using current techniques. Watson has encountered many organisations offering to turn blended textiles into an “alternate energy source” – code for incineration.  “Not very environmentally-friendly in my opinion,” he said.   Ultimately, BlockTexx aims to make it as easy and ingrained to recycle textiles as it is to recycle plastic bottles.   “We wouldn’t leave a plastic bottle on the street – there’s a container scheme. But that plastic bottle is made from polyester, as are our clothes. We just see plastic in our clothes differently,” said Adrian Jones, co-founder of BlockTexx. Still, Jones is optimistic that BlockTexx can help spark a cultural shift, if only because it provides a commercial incentive for businesses and consumers to stop sending textiles to landfill.  “Textile waste is a huge environmental issue, but it’s also a fantastic business opportunity. There’s value in those products if you can upcycle them.”


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BlockTexx is a technology company that recovers polyester and cellulose from textiles and clothing.

Blocktexx

It's estimated 40% of the textile waste stream is comprised of blended garments, however blended waste stream recycling is less technologically developed than other textile-to-textile recycling technologies, with a need for investment and R&amp;D into blended fibre recycling. Australia-based Blocktexx has developed a patent pending process that combines chemical recovery technology and advanced manufacturing to separate and recycle polyester and cotton blends. BlockTexx is now in the process of finalising their first recycling plant in Australia, where it's estimated that they will recycle 4,000 tonnes of textiles in their first year, create up to 30 new full-time jobs and up to $43 million economic impact to the local area. Their ambition is to recycle 50,000 tonnes of textiles over the next four years.