The fashion industry has a massive carbon footprint and was responsible for 2.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2018, representing nearly 4% of the global total. The entire fashion industry releases almost as much GHG each year as the combined economies of two European Union (EU) nations—France and Germany. Moreover, nearly 85% of all clothes manufactured in the world are dumped into landfills each year. If business-as-usual continues, then by 2050 the industry will likely consume nearly a quarter of the global carbon budget. The sheer scale of textile waste’s climate impacts is huge. Bangladesh, one of the countries most at risk to the effects of climate change, is the world’s second largest garment producer, and its economy is heavily reliant on this sector. Bangladesh’s textile and apparel factories also generate approximately 577,000 tonnes of waste annually, nearly half of which is 100% recyclable cotton waste.

As a plausible circular solution, a multi-stakeholder initiative called Circular Fashion Partnership (CFP) was formed by the Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) in collaboration with Reverse Resources (RR) and Partnerships for Green Growth (P4G) to explore ways of being more circular with textiles. The consortium aims to increase usage of recycled materials and embed more textile waste back into apparels. In addition, to increase circularity of materials, a platform called ‘Uber of textile waste’ has been initiated by RR, which aims to establish a link between stakeholders across the supply chain. For example, between suppliers in India and Bangladesh that conduct a three-stage operation: segregate, sell and trace waste fabrics. To facilitate data collection, recycling and reuse of discarded resources, the ‘Uber of textile waste’ platform makes use of a digital warehouse in which textile waste can be registered and tracked.

This cross-sectoral project has many advantages, the most notable being the development of the textiles recycling industry in Bangladesh. By first accumulating and then redirecting post-production textile waste back into the production line of new products, the pace of the material cycle is slowed down. The second advantage is facilitating and fostering circular collaborations among stakeholders in the supply chain, such as recyclers, textile and garment manufacturers, and various other fashion brands operating in the country. Sustainable transformations are possible only when all stakeholders in the supply chain are linked with each other, and partnerships are made with impact-oriented organisations that specialise in textile recycling. Lastly, through the CFP, support is provided to partners to enable them to implement a business model geared towards post-production textile waste across the entire value chain.

Photo by Francois Le Nguyen on Unsplash.