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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 features a selection of case studies, mainly based on the [2024 Circularity Gap Report](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2024). 

In this year’s Report, we shift from exploring the what to the how: exploring the different ways that we need to ‘change the rules of the game’ and create a set of conditions that discourage the overshoot of planetary boundaries and ‘undershoot’ of human development. This process has resulted in us spotlighting 12 of the original 16 solutions, highlighting the country profile that they are most relevant to, as well as placing people at the centre of this story for the first time. Based on extensive interviews and desk research, this Report aims to show governments and industry leaders that if they want to turn theory into action and scale an economy that delivers on needs within the safe limits of the planet, they need to dismantle harmful entrenched processes and align enabling elements. 

[Circle Economy](https://www.circle-economy.com/) is a global impact organisation with an international team of passionate experts based in Amsterdam. We empower industries, cities, and nations with practical and scalable solutions to put the circular economy into action. Our vision is an economic system that ensures the planet and all people can thrive. To avoid climate breakdown, our goal is to double global circularity by 2032. 

Through the *Circularity Gap Reporting Initiative*, our mission is to deliver an annual global Circularity Metric that measures the state of the world economy and identifies key levers to transition to global circularity. 

To learn more about these interventions to accelerate the circular transition, read the [latest Circularity Gap Report 2024](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2024), as well as previous editions of the global [Circularity Gap Reports](https://www.circularity-gap.world/global).

Global Circularity Gap Report 2024

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Business 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

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 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

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 other industries

Valorise waste streams - open loop

Transforming waste products, materials for reuse within other industries

Open loop upcycling

These countries are home to around a quarter of the global population, yet consume over one-third (34%) of raw materials. Shift countries’ material footprint per capita is 4.6 times that of Build countries (largely due to the overconsumption of consumer goods imported from Grow counties) and 1.6 times that of Grow countries.

These are high-income countries in the Global North, as well as in the Gulf, Australia, and Oceania. Examples include:
- Member States of the EU
- the US
- Japan
- the UK
- Canada
- Argentina, ...

While much of their infrastructure is already built, they still contribute heavily to the overshoot of planetary boundaries: they contribute 42% of climate change, 27% of nitrogen, 18% of phosphorus, 16% of freshwater use and 38% of land use change.

To find out what country profile your country belongs to, explore [this interactive story](https://circularity-gap.world) and search for your country on the final map.  


Shift

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

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

👕📱 Consumer goods

Based on extensive interviews and desk research, this Report aims to show governments and industry leaders that if they want to turn theory into action and scale an economy that delivers on needs within the safe limits of the planet, they need to dismantle harmful entrenched processes and align enabling elements - policy, finance, and people

- Get the economics right: Adjust fiscal policies and practices to create true prices and ensure that circular solutions are funded so that they can replace linear norms.





Finance

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

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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  The state would be the first to pass legislation setting broad sustainability regulations for the industry.  Last September, as New York Fashion Week was taking place for the first time in a year, Kathy Hochul, the new governor, sat front row at the Prabal Gurung show, marking a fresh era in the relationship of the fashion industry and the state government. “This is where all the eyes of the world are when it comes to fashion,” she later told Vogue.
Just four months later, the eyes of the world may open a little wider. On Friday, the Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act (or Fashion Act) was unveiled: a bill that, if passed, would make New York the first state in the country to pass legislation that will effectively hold the biggest brands in fashion to account for their role in climate change.
Sponsored by State Senator Alessandra Biaggi and Assemblywoman Anna R. Kelles, and backed by a powerful coalition of nonprofits focused on fashion and sustainability, including the New Standard Institute, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, as well as the designer Stella McCartney, the law will apply to global apparel and footwear companies, with more than $100 million in revenues, doing business in New York.
That is pretty much every large multinational fashion name, ranging from the very highest end — LVMH, Prada, Armani — to such fast-fashion giants as Shein and Boohoo. Specifically, it would require such companies to map a minimum of 50 percent of their supply chain, starting with the farms where the raw materials originate through factories and shipping. They would then be required to disclose where in that chain they have the greatest social and environmental impact when it comes to fair wages, energy, greenhouse gas emissions, water and chemical management, and make concrete plans to reduce those numbers (when it comes to carbon emissions, specifically in accordance with the targets set by the Paris Climate Accords).
Finally, it would require companies to disclose their material production volumes to reveal, for example, how much cotton or leather or polyester they sell. All of that information would also have to be made available online.
“As a global fashion and business capital of the world, New York State has a moral responsibility to serve as a leader in mitigating the environmental and social impact of the fashion industry,” Ms. Biaggi said in a news release, calling the law “a groundbreaking piece of legislation that will make New York the global leader” in holding the fashion industry “accountable.” She also said that the act would ensure that “labor, human rights, and environmental protections are prioritized.”
Companies would be given 12 months to comply with the mapping directive (18 months for their impact disclosures), and if they are found to be in violation of the law, they would be fined up to 2 percent of their annual revenues. Those fines would go to a new Community Fund administered by the Department of Environmental Conservation and used for environmental justice projects. The New York attorney general would also publish an annual list of companies found to be noncompliant. While similar legislation regarding due diligence is being debated in the European Union, and while Germany, France, Britain and Australia have laws requiring due diligence when it comes to human rights and slavery, there is no general legislation in any country governing the greater social and environmental actions of the fashion industry and mandating change.
In 2010, California passed the Transparency in Supply Chains Act, which addresses modern slavery, in 2019 banned sales of new fur products, and last year passed the Garment Worker Protection Act, but the New York act focuses on the manufacturing end of the business, broadly defined.
“Fashion is one of the least regulated industries,” said Maxine Bédat, the founder of the New Standard Institute. In part that is because its sprawling supply chain can include multiple countries and continents. As a result, efforts at sustainability vary widely. Imposing government regulation would regularize the reporting and “make sure there isn’t a competitive disadvantage to doing the right thing,” Ms. Bédat said.
Though many brands have become increasingly vocal in acknowledging their own responsibility when it comes to climate change and human rights violations, efforts to rectify the situation have been left up to the companies and an assortment of nongovernmental watchdog consortiums like the Fair Labor Association, which addresses wage issues, and Higg, which addresses supply chain reporting. They can vary widely.
Ralph Lauren, Kering, LVMH and Capri Holdings, for example, are among the companies that have already committed to using the Science-Based Targets Initiative, a tool for reducing carbon emissions created by the CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature. But Shein didn’t hire its first environmental, social and governance (ESG) head until December.
“Often there is a knee-jerk reaction by businesses against the idea of regulation,” Ms. Bédat said, noting that numerous stakeholders were consulted in drafting the Fashion Act, including retail brands and manufacturers such as Ferrara, which is based in the garment district and has endorsed the bill. But, she continued, “even the auto industry, which initially rebelled against fuel efficiency standards, has now embraced them.” The Fashion Act, Ms. Bédat said, “is an effort to meet industry where they are, recognize the good faith efforts they are already making and come up with a common standard, but do so with some teeth.”
The bill will now make its way through Senate and Assembly committees, with the sponsors aiming to bring it to a vote in late spring after state budget negotiations are complete. “Before officially introducing the bill, we built a broad coalition of support that includes leaders in the fashion industry, manufacturers, labor rights activists and environmental activists who are passionate about seeing the bill become law,” Ms. Biaggi said via email.
Though she said she expected “that some companies impacted by this legislation won’t initially support these new standards,” she added: “This diverse and active coalition makes me confident we can pass this legislation in both chambers later this legislative session.”
Then, said Ms. Kelles, New York may really “set a trend.” 


2022 will continue to bring increased focus on sustainability and social accountability requirements and practices for the fashion, apparel and beauty sector up-and-down the supply chain.
Some of this increased focus will undoubtedly come from state and federal lawmakers and governmental agencies, as new or proposed legislation and regulations are being actively considered or are planned to be rolled out in the coming year. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and various state agencies and legislatures are pursuing or considering measures such as additional chemical use restrictions and prohibitions, new notification and reporting requirements on chemical use and imports, limitations on product disposal options, and extended producer responsibility obligations.
In addition, the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”), indicated in summer of 2021 that the agency would initiate a review in 2022 of its Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims, colloquially known as the “Green Guides.” The Green Guides are a resource the FTC originally created in 1992 to help businesses avoid making unfair and deceptive environmental advertising claims and to assist the public in understanding and appreciating the statements included in such claims. The Green Guides have not been revised since 2012 and, as currently written, may no longer provide comprehensive guidance for businesses and consumers alike given the current sustainability-focused advertising landscape, especially because the Green Guides currently do not cover “sustainability,” “organic,” or “natural” environmental claims. While the FTC did not expressly indicate a specific focus area for its planned revisions to the Green Guides, some suspect that the agency’s revisions will address claims related to sustainability, organic, and natural, as well as climate-related claims, which are top-of-mind for consumers when making purchasing decisions. Brands should be on the lookout for the revisions to the Green Guides and understand them as they may significantly affect the types of environmental advertising claims that are available.
Legislators from the Empire State have their own ideas on how to increase focus on sustainability and social accountability in the fashion industry. In January 2022, the New York state legislature unveiled the Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act (the “Fashion Act”), which is a bill that attempts to make New York the first state in the United States to effectively “hold the biggest brands in fashion to account for their role in climate change.” As currently proposed, the Fashion Act would apply to global apparel and footwear companies with more than $100 million in revenue who do business in New York (so, in other words, a majority of multinational fashion brands). The law would require, inter alia, qualifying brands to map a minimum of 50% of their supply chain and disclose whether in that chain the brands have a significant real or potentially adverse social and environmental impact when it comes to issues such as fair wages, energy, greenhouse gas emissions, etc. and then disclose targets for preventing and improving those impacts. Failure to comply could result in fines of up to 2% of a brand’s annual revenues over $450 million. Brands should keep tabs on the Fashion Act, which is currently making its way through New York legislative committees with an aim towards a vote in late Spring 2022, and the new local requirements that may follow therefrom.
Notwithstanding these planned governmental actions and the impact they may have, the greatest increased focus on sustainability and social accountability in the industry may be driven by non-governmental stakeholders, starting—as most initiatives usually do—with consumers and trickling down to investors, shareholders, and lenders. Now more than ever, there is high consumer demand for goods to meet certain environmental, social and governance, or “ESG,” criteria. Sustainably sourced materials, organically produced fibers, zero-carbon footprint, not tested on animals, no child labor, fair trade, all natural ingredients, plastic-free, environmentallyfriendly packaging – these are just some examples of consumers’ expectations that are driving purchasing, investing, and commercial decisions. And, as companies commit to these certifications and practices to meet consumer expectations, this in turn drives sustainability obligations up-and-down the supply chain, impacting producers and providers of ingredients, components, packaging, and labor.
Failure to comply with these sustainability and social accountability commitments and requirements can have broad ramifications – such as governmental agency enforcement (e.g., enforcement actions brought by the FTC or National Advertising Division for making unfair and deceptive environmental advertising claims), lawsuits (e.g., for failure to comply with New York’s proposed Fashion Act), loss of customers and licensing rights due to breach of contract claims, and other negative impacts to overall brand reputation, to name a few. So regardless of where you are in the supply chain, it will be challenging but important to have robust programs to keep up with the changing regulatory, contractual, and market requirements. In addition to monitoring and ensuring compliance with your reported sustainability and ESG commitments and existing laws and regulatory requirements, some other measures companies should consider:

Stay abreast of upcoming relevant legislation and regulatory requirements and restrictions and consider and plan for how they may affect your business;


Ensure robust processes to inventory all chemicals used in products and identify those chemicals to limit, phase out or prohibit in advance of regulations;


Inventory relevant contractual requirements and commitments and track execution of such obligations;


Assess supply chain contracts to ensure relevant requirements and commitments are passed through to suppliers;


Confirm compliance with commitments, both internally and within supply chain; conduct periodic auditing of operations and contract performance; require routine verification; and confirm execution of corrective measures to address non-conformances.

Those companies who monitor and plan ahead, including by implementing strong compliance programs, will be best suited to ride the ever-expanding sustainability wave, bolster market strength, and ultimately grow and protect brand reputation.


© 2022 Foley & Lardner LLPNational Law Review, Volume XII, Number 90 

United Kingdom

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RubyMoon

<p>RubyMoon is a small online brand for swimwear &amp; fitness clothing based in Brighton, UK that only uses recycled plastics - mainly recovered from the sea - in their clothing production. Garments are produced in the UK and Spain, and profits of the company support female entrepreneurs in developing countries through micro-finance and investment programmes. Jo-Anne Godden founded RubyMoon in 2011. Items are shipped internationally.</p>