Building on the success of its work in researching, mapping, modelling and linking circular textile-to-textile systems in the United States, Accelerating Circularity is launching a new project based in Europe.

In January this year, the Walmart Foundation invested $1.2 million into the organisation’s circular trials using waste textiles generated on the East Coast of the USA.

“We think of successful projects as those that can be repeated and scaled to maximise their impact,” said founder and president Karla Magruder. “The launch of Accelerating Circularity Europe exemplifies this approach and advances our goal of enabling the industry to achieve a scaled, global, circular textile system.”

The founding members of Accelerating Circularity Europe represent leaders in global retail, circular supply chain, and textile recycling and include DuPont Biomaterials, the European Outdoor Group, GIZ, Gr3n, Inditex, Lenzing, Recover, Recyclatex Group, Reverse Resources, Texaid, and Zalando.

“We are excited to join the ACPE steering committee to advance the industry in the ‘end of life’ product stage,” said Laura Coppen, head of circularity at Zalando. “With our reach as a platform, we can contribute to scaling circular textile systems and move away from linear to circular business practices. To do that we need to collaborate across the industry to scale solutions quickly, and we believe this project does just that. Our circularity strategy aims to integrate the principles of circularity into our business with our brand partners and for our customers. We aim to ensure that products don’t end up in landfill or are incinerated and we see this project as a great way to learn and build better systems in the long term.”

The steering committee will set the strategy and convene a Brand and Retailer Working Group for the development of take back programs and circular product specifications. Select collectors, recyclers, and preprocessors will comprise a Spent Textile Working Group to address challenges in collection, sorting, and feedstock preparation. As in the USA, The European project will unfold in phases – research and mapping, followed by modelling and linking, and then trials and evaluation.

There are multiple ways to participate in the project – NGOs can become collaborating organisations and companies can join the technical working groups and also become system partners once the project launches the trial phase. To register interest visit:

www.acceleratingcircularity.org/stakeholder-registry