Transforming the Textile Industry: Creating Circular, Socially Conscious Businesses

The current business model for the fashion and textile industry is almost entirely linear, anchored in newness, immediacy and disposability. This has resulted in mass overproduction, overconsumption and waste, with the global trade of new textiles ever-increasing, alongside an expanding and often challenging secondary market in used textiles. In addition, in some countries there is little to no infrastructure to adequately reuse and recycle all the textile waste the world generates during production and after clothes are used. In most cases, this leads to textiles being incinerated or discarded in landfills or the environment, exacerbating pollution and risks to human health. Companies are only slowly starting to see the economic, social and environmental value of shifting to circular models, including designing textiles to be reused, disassembled and recycled, thereby reducing the amount and pace at which new products are offered on the market.