Circularity

Tersus Solutions, founded in 2009, supports a wide variety of needs by leveraging its proprietary CO2 platform that preserves water and electricity, sanitises or sterilises, captures contaminates and microfibres, and ultimately extends the life of textiles. Steve Madsen, Founder and CTO, and Peter Whitcomb, CEO, speak at length about how the future lies in technology.

A new research report explores how UK fashion and textile companies are developing sustainable and circular practices, including their response to regulatory change associated with green growth and the transition to net zero. The study urged on the need to forge the business case for firms to invest in gathering detailed supply chain data to obtain product-level carbon footprints, as well as launch new circular business models.

Forum for the Future’s Enabling Systemic Circularity in Fashion or ESCF project, running from 2023-24, brought 12 brands/retailers and manufacturers/ suppliers across the fashion industry to examine its limited progress made towards circularity, and identified key insights that are critical for the industry’s transformation.

To make the next textile revolution happen, we need a major shift of mindset – to value a product, appreciate the stages and participants it has taken to manufacture each item, and going back to having less but of better long-lasting quality. While quality is hard to quantify, we can measure and test durability and many other aspects of textiles to ensure they last longer.

The RegioGreenTex initiative has published a paper outlining the development of a framework for classifying textiles for recycling, which is central to establishing efficient and regionally adaptable waste channelling models.

An OECD study on ‘Extended producer responsibility in the garments sector’ contends that EPR is a promising approach for addressing environmental impacts of garments. Its focus on producers and post-consumer products lends it well to addressing impacts at the end-of life and production stages. However, complementary policies can amplify its effect.

A report by the European Fashion Alliance (EFA) explores the region’s fashion industry, renowned for creativity and innovation, detailing the hurdles, opportunities, and strategies for advancing towards a more sustainable and technologically integrated future.

Failure to adequately consider the challenges faced by key trade partners to adapt to the ambitions of the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles risks jeopardising the success of the strategy, a multi-country study into the potential effects of the strategy has concluded.

In October, a statement from the European Recycling Industries' Confederation (EuRIC) warning that the textile reuse and recycling sector in Europe was on the verge of collapse, had sent alarm bells ringing. EuRIC Secretary-General Julia Ettinger tells texfash why the situation is so grim.

Circle Economy has come up with the first-of-its-kind ‘Circularity Gap Report’ that examines how materials flow throughout the entire textile value chain, from design to post-consumer management. It explores how materials are extracted, transformed and managed at their end-of-life—from cotton farming and petrochemical production to spinning, weaving and dyeing to product assembly and distribution—and delves into the resource and energy inputs of each stage.