Textiles circularity pilot asks for brands to ‘walk the talk’
A US-based textile-to-textile recycling project that hopes to develop a circular system to divert clothing from landfill is and is asking for more brands and retailers to take part to scale up the learnings.
The Accelerating Circularity project will include participants along the supply chain and aims to define highest-value use for collected materials as well as to establish a circular systems marketplace.
The project - which is being supported by Walmart, VF Corp, Lenzing, the Outdoor Industry Association and Gap among others - will look at the supply chain for garments including t-shirts, fleece and jeans, plus home textiles, and will include various fibre blends as well as mechanical and chemical recycling.
During a webinar to discuss the project, project leader Janel Twogood noted how many brands had made big commitments on reducing waste and becoming more circular. “But how will we meet all these commitments? The volume of fibre and textiles used far outstrips the recycling capabilities and the collection systems. We need investment, commercialisation and policy to make these things happen. Brands can walk the talk by joining this project, and it will help them meet their commitments and goals.”
She said while there are systems in place to collect, sort and reuse textiles, it has not been done in a coherent manner, involving all players in the chain. “We don’t need to invent new technology, we just need to think about how to realign it. We’ll achieve circularity when we shift the relationships between things.”
Next steps include creating tools that support scaling and replication, building infrastructure, educating consumers, collecting data and developing sorting hierarchies.
To find out more, see the new report ‘Putting textiles to good use’.
