The municipality of Amsterdam, co-created the Amsterdam RELOW Booklet, which describes circular solutions for the textile industry, especially highlighting the aspects of, reuse, repair, refurbish and second-hand in the local context of the city. To illustrate how the pilot envisions moving from a linear to a circular textile flow, the municipality of Amsterdam co-developed the “Textile Wheel,” an infographic identifying the 16 strategic stages of circular textiles, which are described in the booklet. While working on an overarching roadmap for the upcoming years, the municipality of Amsterdam co-defined the following major focus points:

The amount of correctly collected textiles needs to be increased, and incineration should be avoided (without people buying and trashing more) to provide feedstock for the recycling industry and products that contain recycled fibres.  

Use the increase of correctly discarded and collected textile to further design and operationalise the wheel involving different stakeholders of each step of the ‘Textile Wheel’, bringing supply and demand together. 

Discarding less and extending the life cycle of textiles by repairing, reusing and revaluing through a series of workshops and collaboration with educational institutes.  

Exploring design for circularity and circular textiles through a series of workshops and public activities.

The publisher aim to assemble knowledge and educate stakeholders at every stage of the textile industry’s cycle. Firstly, they aim to extend the life of textiles currently in use through encouraging people to reduce consumption and repair or reuse items. Secondly, when items must be discarded, they want to encourage people to do so correctly and responsibly. Finally, the aim is to educate and encourage citizens, designers, retailers, and manufacturers to think sustainably when creating or buying new products.

In a nutshell, the Amsterdam Reflow Booklet rethinks the lifecycle of textiles with citizens and stakeholders. The Amsterdam Reflow Booklet addresses the environmental impact of the textile industry through a grassroots initiative focusing on discarded consumer textiles in a municipal context.

You can find the full Amsterdam Reflow Booklet following the link below.