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

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)

Contributing to the improvement of biodiversity including species diversity, total number of protected species, and ecosystem health

Biodiversity

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

Fashion and Textiles

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

Use waste as a resource

Designing to reduce waste during production and use

Design out waste

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

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

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

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

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

Thematic Areas

City Stakeholders

![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

         Official websites use .gov  A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.        Secure .gov websites use HTTPS  A lock (A locked padlock) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.          

 It takes a whole lot of love and care to create each pair of Rothy’s. And we really mean a lot. Since we own and operate our sustainable factory in Dongguan, China, only the Rothy’s family—and no other manufacturers—touch our shoes during production. This is a rare accomplishment in the footwear industry, and we’re so proud of the collaboration between our design and production teams in San Francisco and Dongguan. Their dedication to teamwork and innovation is part of what makes every pair so special.
 We combine the best of hand craftsmanship and machine assembly to create the most efficient, environmentally friendly process and product possible. From our San Francisco design headquarters to our manufacturing workshop in China, every shoe goes through dozens of meticulous steps before landing in its recycled cardboard shoebox. Curious how our seamless shoes come to life? Read on for a peek behind the sustainable curtain.  When we begin designing a new style, we first establish a color palette for the collection. This happens in our San Francisco design studio, where our creative director and product team thoughtfully identify a variety of colors, patterns and styles. From there, the SF team develops a CAD (Computer-Aided Design) and programming files. When these are complete they’re sent to our China team to guide the construction of each new style. 
Once our China workshop receives the programming file from our team in San Francisco, they identify any needs for tooling or lasts (aka, manufacturing mechanisms) then create them at the workshop. After the design is locked in, the team begins to knit the upper. This is where they can really experiment with color, exploring a range of Pantone hues that work best on our unique thread made from recycled plastic water bottles. 

Our innovative knit machines are programmed to precise size levels, which means we dramatically reduce waste on our production line. The upper assembly includes a heel counter, which gives the heels of our shoes structure and flexibility. Since Rothy’s are knit to shape, the final uppers are seamless and therefore extra-comfortable. 

When wearing Rothy’s, you may consider the outsoles just the part of the shoe that pounds the pavement. However, they’re impressive in their own right. Firstly, they do not contain any carbon and are made from nontoxic rubber. Secondly, they’re a special way for us to incorporate color into our designs. Depending on the silhouette, we either inject or compress color into the outsole mold, meaning we have full control over the color output. 

After the uppers and outsoles are complete, our workshop team quite literally takes things into their own hands. Uppers and outsoles are attached through a strobel construction, which is done by hand. Strobel is a highly technical stitching technique that reduces the amount of adhesive needed in construction. One person does this by hand for each and every shoe, and our strobel team consists of eight talented stitchers. 

The finishing touch, our cushy insoles, come next. Created in the inspiring embroidery room of our China workshop, the insoles are made from recycled materials, including scraps collected during the outsole creation process. Once they’re ready, the insoles are slipped into their perfect match—a corresponding shoe. 

Voilà! After dozens of careful steps in San Francisco and China, our beautifully designed, incredibly comfortable shoes are complete. All that’s left to do is place them into their sturdy shoe boxes that ship directly (no box-in-box packaging waste) right to your door. From our hands to your feet, Rothy’s are crafted with love. 

 
  2022Next year, we’ll achieve zero-waste (!) at Rothy’s factory. Furthermore, we’ll begin incorporating twice-recycled materials into new products. This is an industry first, and an important step towards a circular model. 

Hemp may be one of the oldest textiles on earth, but we see it as the fiber of the future. Strong, regenerative and built to last, this material is blended with our signature thread, cotton and marine plastic (in the case of bags) to create breathable styles—inspired by the beauty of nature. 

San Francisco

Dongguan

large_blob

medium_blob

small_blob

thumbnail_blob

blob

ROTHY'S

<p>The majority of plastic products used nowadays are designed to be used only once and then disposed to the landfill. Plastic waste that gets into the waterways could also cause injuries and deaths of marine species upon injection. Another problem in many water bodies is the occurrence of algal blooms where the overgrowth of algae could obstruct the growth and survival of marine species by blocking out sunlight, competing for oxygen, and potentially releasing toxins. Concerning that, ROTHY'S collects single-use plastic bottles from landfills, plastic waste and algae from water bodies. Combined with other renewable materials it uses, they are used to produce ROTHY'S shoes, bags and accessories. ROTHY's also implements a knitting-to-shape strategy to minimise any waste produced during the manufacturing process. With that, it has repurposed millions of single-use plastic water bottles and over 200,000 pounds of ocean-bound marine plastic. The innovative knitting-to-shape strategy also helps reduce 30% material waste.</p>