According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the textile industry and consumers create 15 million tons of textile waste annually in the United States alone. This project will help research and map how the industry could move from a take-make-waste system to a circular one, in order to avoid the massive amounts of textile waste put into landfills annually.
The Walmart Foundation has given Textile Exchange a grant to support this work. The support will allow the Accelerating Circularity Project to begin researching, mapping and identifying links that develop new models for scalable and cost-effective circular textile-to-textile supply chains. The goal of this work is to increase the use of recycled fibers, decrease textile waste and reduce the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The Accelerating Circularity Project will:
- Research the availability of textile waste, waste management stakeholders and the recycling landscape
- Map how fibers flow through the textile industry and recycling needs and gaps in the system
- Link appropriate recycling technologies compatible with fiber waste
- Map how all of these connect to rewire existing textile supply chains for circularity
This work will provide the industry with the knowledge to enable transformation from a take-make-waste model to a circular textile supply chain. This project aligns with Textile Exchange’s mission as a global nonprofit that works closely with members to drive industry transformation in preferred fibers, integrity and standards and responsibility supply networks.
“Textile Exchange is excited that we are able to facilitate the work of the Accelerating Circularity Project. We believe that aligning and supporting important industry initiatives through close collaborations is what it takes to make significant changes required of our industry to bring scalable sustainable change,” said La Rhea Pepper, managing director of Textile Exchange, in a statement.