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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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Article / Report

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

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

Scalability

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)

Reduced use and withdrawal of water and rate of recycling and reuse of water

Save Water (SDG6)

Producing and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and Services

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

Fashion and Textiles

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way

Prioritise regenerative resources

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

Consider opportunities to create greater value and align incentives that build on the interaction between products and services

Rethink the business model

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

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

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

Utilise bio-based, reusable, non-toxic and non-critical materials

Regenerative materials

Upgrade, repair, and maintenance while in-use

Maximise lifetime of products in-use

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

Maximise lifetime of products after use

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within other industries

Valorise waste streams - open loop

Deliver products through business models that ensure maximum value

Product business models

Deliver services through business models that ensure maximum value

Service business models

Designing to reduce waste during production and use

Design out waste

Designing to enable multiple uses and lifecycles of a product and its materials

Design for cyclability

Designing products that are made to last and to ensure longer use

Design for durability

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

Engage with the local community where facilities or offices are located

Community collaboration

Employ technologies to gather and analyse data to provide insights on resource use

Data and insights

Employ online platforms to connect and improve information sharing between stakeholders

Digital platforms

Using <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/raw-materials/specific-interest/critical_sv" target="_blank">materials that are not considered critical</a>.

Non-critical materials and inputs 

Using materials that can be easily reused or recycled after use

Reusable, recyclable materials and inputs

Providing repair services or maintenance services for products or parts

Product maintenance, repair

Marketplaces or services that enable the second hand sale of products

Second-hand sale, distribution

Transforming waste products, materials for reuse within other industries

Open loop upcycling

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

Using open loop recycled materials

Providing products through leasing, rental, or pay-per-use models instead of sales

Leasing, rental, pay per use

Decentralised services that rely on the power of the crowd or the community

Crowd-based services

Designing products so they produce as little waste as possible during production

Design for minimal waste

Designing products to remove any barriers to recycling and enable easy recyclability

Design for recycling

Designing products to increase consumer’s emotional attachment and ensure longer use

Design for product attachment, emotional durability

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes

Working together with the community and engaging them in the company operations

Joint product development

Utilising data and models to to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Data analytics, modelling

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

Online platforms

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

Mobilise

Visions and Ambitions

Roadmaps and strategies and targets

 Convene Towards Action

Advocate for circular change

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

Incentivise

 Direct Financial Support

Incubator and investment programmes

Public-private partnerships

Raise awareness and run information campaigns about  strategies for and impacts of the circular economy in different contexts.

Communication and awareness

Economic Frameworks

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

VISION:
People are valued and supported in an equitable, socially just and resilient society.

DETAIL:
Imagine a time when…people and communities are at the heart of any sustainable and circular system. The planet thrives, enabling us to survive with balance and abundance. People are no longer passive consumers, but proactive participants. The ‘makers’ who design, build, reprocess and recirculate products throughout the value chain are treated equally and are equitable partners in shaping and benefitting from the system. Textiles/garments can be produced and repurposed locally as well as centrally. A blend of craft methods alongside more automated production provides regionalised, multi-faceted perspectives and fulfilling livelihoods, be they high- or low-tech. Wealth gaps are minimised and dignity, equity, equality is a reality for all.

People and Society

Slow strategies aim to keep materials in use for as long as possible, for example through design for durability and repairability. A more circular economy is also a slower one: materials, components, and products—and even buildings and infrastructure—that we lock in stocks are made to last. This will lower material demand in the long run, in essence also serving to narrow resource flows.

Slow

Regenerate strategies phase out hazardous or toxic materials and processes and substitute them with regenerative biomass resources. A circular economy aims to mimic natural cycles—by shifting to more regenerative farming practices, for example—while also maximising the share of circular biomass that enters the economy. Regeneration can happen both at the systems level (by designing regenerative processes) as well as at the product level (by switching synthetic to organic fertilisers, for example).

Regenerate

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

Policy Instruments

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

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

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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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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Again, Again & A-GAIN : The  A–GAIN GUIDE  is a digital platform for the capital that adds its contribution to positively change how to deal with used textiles in fashion, especially in an urban context, and to set in the local cycle. With its new GUIDE feature, it can be individualized even further. In this way, the A-GAIN GUIDE strengthens local networks and as well as infrastructures and gives greater visibility to the actors of recycling.The platform, developed jointly by the Circular Berlin association and the social business LoopLook as part of the Berlin Re-Use Initiative, is unique in its mission to date and is a funding project of the Berlin Senate Departments for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection and for Economic Affairs, Energy and Operations.The free platform launched in September 2021 (see article) offers Berliners a way to reuse and recycle their old clothes. With the easy and simple service, the founders of A-GAIN GUIDE (Stefanie Barz and Alessandra-Isabel Hager from LoopLook as well as Arianna Nicoletti, Circular Berlin e.V. and Green Fashion Tours) not only want to contribute to a holistic awareness of fashion and consumption, but also strengthen the use of local offers and develop towards a local textile circular economy. After the successful launch of the digital MAP, the individualizing GUIDE is now even more interactive.On average, each garment is worn up to seven times.With the help of an automated question catalog, the GUIDE makes individual suggestions for the further use of used clothing: Until now, users have been able to use a filter function on the MAP to display which alteration tailors, second-hand stores, design studios, collection points, cobblers and other (textile) initiatives were located in their direct vicinity. The interactive GUIDE can now find and display the appropriate offers for each individual textile problem."In the extensive research on MAP, we have finally been able to make the very diverse offer in Berlin visible. We now want to bring this existing textile infrastructure even closer to our fellow citizens with the GUIDE and motivate them to give their garments a second, third or fourth chance. With the new GUIDE function, we want to inspire people to be more conscious of their own clothing and its value. Experience has shown us that not all solutions are always obvious, and we now want to solve that with the GUIDE."  Stefanie Barz explained." In doing so, through direct access to local resources and urban service offerings, consumers have the opportunity to become an active part of this change process and, most importantly, to strengthen the local economy." adds Alessandra-Isabel Hager.Smart side effect: The database linked to the A-GAIN GUIDE also enables efficient evaluation of textile re-use and recycling processes and the expansion of cooperative infrastructures within Berlin. "The A-GAIN GUIDE allows us to understand current fashion consumption and clothing use, which problems are more common, how and if suggestions from the platform are adopted, and which ones are favored." In support of climate goals on a nationwide level, the A-GAIN GUIDE is open source-based, making it easily adaptable for other cities and metropolitan areas.

To find the best solution for this is often not easy. Now a new project is launched: The A-GAIN GUIDE shows all Berlin citizens the most creative and efficient ways to repair, pass on, upcycle and recycle their used clothing. As the first free digital platform of its kind, it is funded by the Berlin Senate Departments for Environment, Transport and Climate Protection and for Economy, Energy and Enterprises. As part of '202030 - The Berlin Fashion Summit', the A-GAIN GUIDE celebrates its release for the first time during Fashion Week in Berlin. The focus is on the MAP function, which offers consumers:inside a very good orientation aid with an overview of all textile recycling services on a map, which will be launched live on Instagram @a__gain__guide on September 9, 2021 - 12 noon and can be found on www.a-gain.guide.The platform A-GAIN GUIDE, jointly developed by the association Circular Berlin and the social business LoopLook, educates Verbraucher:innen in the sense of the German Sustainability Strategy about the potential that lies in worn-out textiles. According to the initiators, the MAP's filter function shows which shoemakers, alteration tailors, used clothing containers, second-hand stores, designers and other initiatives are the best places to go for recycling in the immediate vicinity."If, for example, your favorite wool sweater has moth holes, the user of the A-GAIN GUIDE can quickly and easily find a classic art maker or conjure up a new piece of clothing from it in an upcycling workshop," explains Alessandra-Isabel Hager of LoopLook. In the near future, an interactive questionnaire will also be linked to the A-GAIN GUIDE, so that users can receive tailor-made solution suggestions. All in all, with the help of the A-GAIN GUIDE, relatively unknown ways of reuse will be made accessible and traditional techniques will be given a new lease of life. Both nature and consumers gain added value several times over, as garments are repaired or adapted to individual tastes in the most sustainable way possible.Arianna Nicoletti (Circular Berlin) emphasizes that "no country in Europe produces more textile waste than Germany". Stefanie Barz (LoopLook) adds, "Considering the ever-shorter lifespan of 'fast fashion' clothing, its devastating production conditions and the associated negative impact on our environment, a social change towards a circular society, more quality instead of quantity, and an effective recycling system is urgently needed and only possible with the involvement and participation of all stakeholders."By consumers actively using the A-GAIN GUIDE, a rethinking of fashion consumption can be achieved and combined with much more joy and practicality. In this way, the topic of textile reuse is taken out of the sustainability niche and into the breadth of society. At the same time, new synergies are generated in the city that can be transferred to many other cities and initiatives."The "open-source" model provided by the A-GAIN GUIDE team, along with the functions and designs developed, is suitable for this purpose," says Arianna, underlining Circular Berlin's concern for more openness and participation.The A-GAIN GUIDE is an important cornerstone on the way to a greater sense of responsibility and a smaller ecological footprint on a local level - at the root of the circular economy.The platform is created in cooperation with Circular Berlin and LoopLook as a result of the award by the Berlin Re-Use Ideas Competition 2020. As joint winners, the initiators share the vision of using creative strategies not only to reduce textile waste streams and close material loops within the urban infrastructure, but also to give more visibility to small and medium-sized entrepreneurs and furthermore to promote local networks.You can watch the launch video of A-Gain via this link.Partner Call: The MAP of the A-GAIN GUIDE with its clear filter functions will be gradually expanded to include many more Berlin districts and service providers. All service providers of textile recycling in Berlin are invited to register via the registration form to become official partners of the A-GAIN GUIDE!

Berlin

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NGO in Berlin stimulating circular collaboration to improve urban infrastructures, material loops and processes, with Arianna Nicoletti as the textile lead.

Circular Berlin

Social Business case fostering local sustainable fashion consumption and co-creation processes in urban environments by mapping textile repair, handcraft & design services, kicking-off in Berlin.

LoopLook

<p>Germany is the biggest producer of textile waste in Europe. Launched in 2021 during the Berlin Fashion Week, open-source online platform A-GAIN GUIDE paves the way for consumers and their clothing to be repaired, reused, upcycled and recycled, revealing the potential of used clothes to reduce the CO2 emissions just by prolonging the lifespan of garments.</p>