Nonprofit Accelerating Circularity (AC) has come up with a DIY step-by-step guide for enterprises in the textile value chain on how to transition to a circular business model.
- Designed in collaboration with every node of the textile supply chain, Making Used Textiles New Again — A Playbook for Building Circular Textile-to-Textile Recycling Systems, highlights scalability in textile-to-textile recycling and helps one understand how to move into circular systems by finding solutions to problems that exist, and identifying gaps to see what is actionable today.
The Playbook: The playbook has been worked out to engage industry stakeholders across multiple regions and cultures by providing a step-by-step guide to build circular, textile-to-textile recycling systems.
- It builds a complete system for circular textile-to-textile recycling and incorporates value chain partners that are not traditionally part of a linear textile system, such as textile collectors, sorters, and technology providers for automated sorting and preprocessing.
- In this Playbook, Accelerating Circularity lays out the fundamental steps for creating circular systems to turn spent textiles into the raw materials used to produce new textiles.
- The model for circularity is commercially focused, technically informed and designed as an introductory guide for stakeholders to plan and implement circular systems, which can progress from trial stage to full scale textile-to-textile programmes.
- It builds a complete system for circular textile-to-textile recycling and incorporates value chain partners that are not traditionally part of a linear textile system, such as textile collectors, sorters, and technology providers for automated sorting and preprocessing.
- Accelerating Circularity’s trials convened a wide variety of collaborators wherein new relationships were formed between value chain actors that did not previously know each other or knew their services even existed.
The Context: Ordering feedstocks revealed what materials are readily available, which feedstocks already have a market, and which do not. Polyester products are a prime example: new technologies to recycle polyester will create a market for collectors/sorters to sell their products.
- While preprocessing post-consumer textiles, it was learnt that yields vary widely depending on the product and the processes, and that yield loss varied between 40% and 15%.
- The interconnected nature of circular systems is evident in each challenge faced. For example, just because a recycler has proven their technology can scale (through piloting), it does not ensure they will commercialise even if the funding to build a plant is available. Until feedstocks that meet recycler requirements in terms of volumes, quality, location, and cost are available at scale, recycling cannot be taken up at scale. Sorting and preprocessing systems must also commercialise for circularity to function.
- Gaps in the circular process have been identified throughout this Playbook. The markets and processes in place today need to evolve to support a broader use of recycled materials. For example, sorting and pre-processing systems need to expand to prioritize textile-to-textile feedstocks versus focusing on wipers and shoddy, and there’s a need to push the innovative boundaries for what’s possible in mechanical recycling.
WHY GO CIRCULAR: The textile industry’s existing linear supply chain is heavily impacting environmental health and human communities across the globe. From production to processing, wear, and end-of-life disposal, textiles are polluting waterways, emitting greenhouse gases, and ending up in landfills.
- In the United States alone, the municipal solid waste stream contains 16.9 million tonnes of textiles annually. It is estimated that clothing under-utilisation and lack of recycling amount to an annual global economic loss of $500 billion.
- Today less than 1% of all used clothing is recycled into new materials. The textile industry must become circular to eliminate this waste and cut the need for virgin raw materials.
- Largescale industry action will reduce planetary impacts in critical areas such as energy, industrial chemical usage, and water.
ABOUT: An action-oriented nonprofit focused on textile-to-textile recycling at commercial scale through a collaborative, stakeholder-led approach, the mission at Accelerating Circularity is to catalyse new supply chains and business models to turn used textiles into mainstream raw materials. The vision Is a world in which textiles are no longer wasted, and millions of tonnes of waste are diverted from landfills and incineration.
WHAT THEY SAID:
Our work at Accelerating Circularity is dedicated to bringing together industry leaders and providing resources to accelerate the conversion of spent textiles into mainstream raw materials. The technologies and systems we are facilitating will increase the speed and scale of the work that will ultimately transform old textiles into commercial fibers, yarns and fabrics that circle back into towels, blankets, and jeans again. The technical knowledge of our team — coupled with comprehensive research and stakeholder engagement — has surfaced critical insights into how to evolve the industry, including revealing gaps in our existing textile recycling systems and real-world solutions to address these shortcomings. Through commercial scale and real-world production trials, we have unlocked the opportunities of a circular textile model and discovered the things we can do today to enable circularity to scale up. We have created a suite of tools, including this Playbook, as an open resource.
— Karla Magruder
Founder
Accelerating Circularity
At Renewcell, we have stuck to a few principles that have enabled us to go big, fast. First, we have designed a recycling process that fits established machinery, infrastructure, and supplier networks. Second, we have made sure that we yield a product that is equal to virgin quality specifications. Third, we have worked closely with our intended customers and end users to validate our innovation and lock in future demand, which in turn has made it possible for us to gather the capital required to buy the off-the-shelf machinery we need. As we grow, we aim to inspire others to apply these principles and contribute to accelerating circularity in our industry.
— Tricia Carey
Chief Commercial Officer
Renewcell
Recover is still in its learning phase, however we know that good collaboration with the supply chain is crucial in moving towards a circular system, and we have made it our aim to join forces with other suppliers that have a similar vision and approach to innovation as ourselves. For Recover, we take development all the way to fabric or garments because only at this stage can we validate if the feedstock and fibre quality are working, and that’s why our work with Ferre and Polopiqué on post-consumer waste garment development has been so valuable.
— Helene Smit
Chief Sustainability Officer
Recover
