World Circular Textiles Day (WCTD), which tracks and emboldens circular textiles progress, will host its third annual global event on October 7. It will see participants from across the value chain gather in person and virtually to report on circularity progress while recognising challenges faced by the industry and looking forward to solutions.

WCTD co-founder hosts will report, reflect and celebrate progress made in circular textiles over the last year. The event will feature interviews and stories from across the industry and globe, featuring key developments which have been collected and archived on WCTD’s Knowledge Hub, the world’s largest digital archive of circular actions in the textile industry.

World Circular Textiles Day (WCTD), which tracks and emboldens circular textiles progress, will host its third annual global event on October 7. It will see participants from across the value chain gather in person and virtually to report on circularity progress while recognising challenges faced by the industry and looking forward to solutions.

As a platform amplifying this progress, World Circular Textiles Day’s annual review event, now in its third year, will be the first to happen in front of a live audience in London, hosted in collaboration with The Conduit. The programme will highlight circularity progress over the last year and include insights and updates across WCTD core themes: Materials and Planetary boundaries, Products and Services, and People and Society. Interviews and conversations with signatories, companies, organisations will take place from across the globe.

The programme will also include a live link to New York City to capture insights from WCTD’s North American signatories, hosted by WCTD partner Lenzing Group, and a global livestream will be available for free. Hundreds of stakeholders from around the globe will gather virtually to celebrate progress and join the dots as an industry to overcome the challenges ahead to achieve Full Circularity by 2050.

“Our goal is to amplify the actions and efforts of the dedicated individuals and organisations working towards textiles circularity to inspire and drive further activities to advance full circularity by 2050,” said Cyndi Rhoades, co-founder at World Circular Textiles Day.

“Companies, organisations and individuals who join us on this journey towards full circularity by 2050 can upload their activities throughout the year to WCTD’s Knowledge Hub, the world’s largest digital archive of circular textiles case studies. The Knowledge Hub works as an ever-evolving time capsule, keeping track of the progress achieved on all circular activities taking place year on year. We will also select some of these case studies to be presented as an example to follow during this year’s World Circular Textiles Day,” added Gwen Cunningham, World Circular Textiles Day’s co-founder and Lead Textiles Programme at Circle Economy.

This year’s event is sponsored by lead partner, Lenzing Fibers, as well as, TEXAID, Bank & Vogue, Usha Yarns, The Conduit and APR.

“The implementation of circularity is one of the most important challenges the textile industry is currently facing. Since the topic is so complex, progress can only be achieved by partnering and starting industry-overlapping initiatives. As Lenzing has a clear commitment towards circularity we appreciate this new initiative and fully support it,” said Tricia Carey, director of Global Business Development and Americas, Lenzing Group.

“Collaboration is the only way we can shift the fashion and textiles industry to become circular, which is why we are excited to be among so many companies and stakeholders committed to a circular future brought together by WCTD22,” said Steven Bethell, founder of Bank & Vogue.

“As a home for people passionate about driving social change, we are thrilled to be hosting World Circular Textiles Day 2022. This is a wonderful opportunity to create space for positive and catalytic collaborations and conversations that will help create momentum towards full textile circularity,” said The Conduit.

“Circular economy within the textile industry is an important driver of innovation and sustainable practices. TEXAID, as a part of the end-of-life phase within the textile value chain, supports the further development of the industry on the road to circularity. We are committed to active exchange within the textile industry. This is the only way to understand the requirements of the various players and to find joint solutions to close the textile loop,” said Martin Böschen, TEXAID’s CEO.

“We earnestly join the strong list of WCTD signatories in our common effort to bring focus on the urgent need of achieving full textile circularity by 2050. We look forward to a collaborative approach amongst all signatories and are dedicated to raising the quality bar of recycled textiles,” added Anurag Gupta, managing director of Usha Yarns.  

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)