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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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Business case

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

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

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

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

Fashion and Textiles

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

Chemical and Plastic

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

Use waste as a resource

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

Cycle strategies aim to cycle and reuse materials at their highest value: they maximise the volume of secondary materials re-entering the economy, ultimately minimising the need for virgin material inputs and therefore also narrowing flows. Of course, virgin materials will always be needed to a degree: all materials degrade and can’t be cycled infinitely, use energy, and require blending with virgin materials to maintain strength and functionality.

Cycle

Impacts

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Industries

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The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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 Recycled PET (rPET) results in 79% lower carbon dioxide emissions compared to virgin polymers according to a new study released by PET Recycling Team GmbH (Wöllersdorf, Germany) a wholly owned subsidiary of ALPLA (Geldern, Germany). The findings of the study were conducted by denkstatt GmbH (Vienna, Austria) on behalf of ALPLA which has been working on PET recycling for more than 20 years. The results of the study exceeds previous assumptions in showing a significantly higher savings than previously assumed. The rPET produced by PET Recycling Team GmbH in Wöllersdorf has a carbon footprint of 0.45 kg CO2 equivalent per kilogram of rPET. Virgin PET, or new material, accounts for a CO2 equivalent of 2.15 kg per kilogram. This corresponds to a CO2 equivalent of 1.7 kg or 79% lower greenhouse gas emissions for rPET.“The savings for a single kilogram of rPET are enough to power a 13-watt bulb continuously for twenty days in the Austrian power mix,” notes plant manager Peter Fröschel.For more sustainable packaging and plastic innovations, visit Minneapolis November 8-9 during the 15th anniversary of MinnPack that’s co-located with 5 other exhibitions including PLASTEC. For more information, visit  the MinnPack website.The carbon footprint was calculated in accordance with ISO 14044, starting with the collection and sorting of used PET bottles, covering transportation to the recycling plant in Wöllersdorf, through to washing, processing and granulating. The analysis is based on the mass and energy balance (electricity and gas consumption) for 2016 at the Wöllersdorf recycling plant in Austria.ALPLA operates recycling enterprises at three sites – a joint venture in Mexico, the wholly owned subsidiary PET Recycling Team in Wöllersdorf and a new recycling plant built in southern Poland in 2013. The annual capacity of these plants is around 65,000 tonnes of food-grade rPET.“We are witnessing a clear trend towards PET packaging,” says Fröschel, “and not just in summer, when the beverage industry enjoys a boom due to hot weather. This makes it all the more important to collect used packaging and return recyclable materials to the production process. Our recycling plants play a key role in this regard.”Ed Note: According to the latest figures from the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), PET recycling rates in the U.S. are close to 30%.For more information, visit www.petrecyclingteam.com or www.alpla.com 

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Textile Exchange is a global nonprofit that creates leaders in
the preferred fiber and materials industry.
With a robust membership representing leading brands, retailers, and suppliers, Textile Exchange is positively impacting climate through accelerating the use of preferred fibers across the global textile industry. We develop, manage, and promote a suite of leading industry standards, as well as collect and publish critical industry data and insights that enable brands and retailers to measure, manage and track their use of preferred fiber and materials.

Textile Exchange

United Nations

<p>The 2025 Recycled Polyester Challenge is a joint initiative launched by Textile Exchange and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Changes's Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action. They aim to drive the fashion market towards the use of recycled polyester (rPET) and the associated reduction in greenhouse gases (GHGs). The challenge set a target for the fashion and textile industry to commit to using rPET for 45% recycled volume by 2025 and 90% recycled volume by 2030.</p>

Textile Exchange and United Nations: 2025 Recycled Polyester Challenge

This collection is being created to regroup all case studies related to the packaging industry (CAT purpose)

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Packaging collection

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Starter Kit collection

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

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

Jobs

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

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

Team up to create joint value

Engage with the local community where facilities or offices are located

Community collaboration

Initiatives with disadvantaged communities, minorities, people distanced from the labour market

Give-back programmes

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

Inform

Encourage workplace training

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

Mobilise

 Convene Towards Action

Crowdsourcing and challenge mechanisms

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

 In 2002, Bangladesh became the first country in the world to ban the use of thin plastic bags and begin exploring environmentally safe alternatives. For International Plastic Bag Free Day, we’re going back to Bangladesh to see how Rohingya refugees are finding sustainable solutions and upcycling single-use products.
Women sort washed nutritional supplement packaging at the U.N. World Food Programme’s upcycling center in Cox’s Bazar.
Sustainable Solutions in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp
The bustling lanes of Kutupalong, the world’s biggest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, are always full of chatter as they wind through busy makeshift bazaars. The camp is home to more than 860,000 Rohingya refugees from neighboring Myanmar, all of whom receive support from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
Seasonal fruits and vegetables, clothes, locks and keys – whatever people need, the bazaar’s got it. Disappointment only creeps in with the piles of general waste.
The Rohingya camps generate 119.8 tons of waste per day. Much like everywhere else, the waste problem in the camps demands a sustainable solution.
One way the U.N. World Food Programme is setting out to offset packaging waste is upcycling. Food from e-voucher outlets, where Rohingya families pick up their groceries every month, is packaging-free but aluminum metallized wraps have to be used for fortified food and special nutritional products.
Women sewing the washed and pressed packaging. Apart from the environmental benefits at the so-called end-of-life stage of packaging, the center is also creating work opportunities for the Rohingya community, especially for Rohingya women.
Transforming Waste and Giving Hope
Through a new upcycling center, this packaging waste is transformed back into useful products. Rohingya refugees have been able to brainstorm, design, and create user-friendly products from waste.
“My life is much better now — I can send my children to school,” says Sayeda, a Rohingya woman who makes different types of bags and masks using upcycled material and her skills as a tailor.
“Now that I have started to earn, I am treated well by other people in my community. The centre has upcycled over half a million food packets into 2,500 different products since it started operating last September.”
Waste can create a significant environmental threat, especially for groundwater. The finished products from the upcycling center is helping to improve the environmental health of the camps and surrounding areas.
From wallets and different kinds of bags — totes, pouches, zippers —  to bins, baskets, bracelets, floor mats, and pen holders, the center is experimenting widely with its product types and designs.
The process maintains a clear division of labour. Walking inside the center, one can immediately spot the different groups working together on different tasks. Packaging is

sorted
washed
dried
compressed
and processed by different groups.

Each group of workers consists of six to seven volunteers from the Rohingya community. Currently, there are 86 volunteers working in the upcycling centre: 41 men and 45 are women.
The Rohingya refugee crisis added to an already challenging task of waste management in this part of Bangladesh, which relies on its coastlines and forests for food and livelihoods. Upcycling helps to keep the camp environment clean in two prominent ways:

preventing the risk of floods
keeping the groundwater safe

The Environmental Threat of Packaging Waste
Most of the household waste in the camps ends up in the canals and poses a big threat of flood during the monsoon season. As part of the monsoon preparedness plan this year, 50 miles of canals and drains were cleared and waste collected from these places.
Diane Broinshtein, the program policy officer heading the U.N. World Food Programme’s Self-Reliance for refugees program in Cox’s Bazar, said: “Minimizing the impact on the environment moving forward is important, and the U.N. World Food Programme has a big part to play in that. It’s up to the U.N. World Food Programme’ to ensure the impact of its work creates no negative side-effects, and this centre addresses that need.” 

<p>This case study illustrates how the U.N. World Food Programme is addressing the waste management problem and marginalization of Rohingya refugees by promoting sustainable practices and creating employment opportunities.</p>