The Sorting for Circularity India Pre-Consumer Pilot aimed to organise the Indian textile waste market by establishing a circular economy that maximises value recovery from textile waste. This pilot addressed pre-consumer waste (factory floor cutting waste) and aimed to demonstrate a 360° closed-loop system, where factory waste is segregated, digitally traced, and then processed by recyclers to produce new fibres, which are returned to the production chain. The initiative sought to enhance transparency, traceability, and efficiency in India’s textile waste management system.

Fashion for Good launched D(R)YE Factory of the Future in January 2022 in collaboration with brand partners Kering, adidas, PVH Corp. and manufacturing partners Arvind Limited and Welspun India with the aim of validating the most promising technology combinations in pretreatment and colouration processing steps to support the widespread adoption of mostly waterless innovations within the textile industry.

India generates around 3,944k tonnes of post-consumer textile waste annually, with 48% viable for recycling feedstock, though inadequate sorting and recycling systems prevent full utilisation. This project involved two primary pilots that tested sorting innovations: Matoha’s FabriTell desktop scanner for semi-automated sorting and PICVISA’s ECOSORT for fully automated sorting. The pilots aimed to assess these technologies’ ability to categorise waste by fibre and colour efficiently, ultimately facilitating quality feedstock production for recycling. Initial findings suggest India could effectively harness a closed-loop textile recycling system, with cotton and polyester blends as dominant waste types.

This project was designed to organise and optimise India’s textile waste supply chain. By evaluating various waste streams for collection, sorting, and pre-processing, the initiative aimed to enhance circularity in textiles. It sought to improve collection and sorting systems, foster recycling infrastructure, and introduce innovative solutions to generate new revenue streams and next-generation materials from textile waste-reducing reliance on virgin resources and minimising landfill and incineration.

Fashion for Good alumni, Kintra Fibres produces a biopolymer which is a replacement for virgin polyester. Polybutylene succinate or PBS is a biopolymer made using industrial sugarcane as a feedstock, it is also biodegradable in aerobic conditions.

Fashion for Good expanded its Sorting for Circularity framework to address the challenge of sorting for rewearable textiles to understand better their resale potential and the demand across the second-hand market. We launched an 18-month initiative in January 2024 in collaboration with Circle Economy, brand partners adidas, Inditex, Levi Strauss & Co. and Zalando to enhance the sorting of rewearable textiles using innovative AI technologies. The project seeks to improve garment recovery for resale, promoting circularity in the fashion industry.

The aim of the Full Circle Textiles Project – Polyester (FCTP-P) is to validate and scale promising technologies in polyester chemical recycling and to encourage financing and offtake commitments in the fashion industry. The project builds on the framework and lessons of the Full Circle Textiles Project – Cellulosics (FCTP-C), which focused on investigating economically viable and scalable solutions for cellulosic chemical recycling. It brings together a consortium of stakeholders including brands, innovators, supply chain partners and catalytic funders – a structure that has proven successful in driving and scaling disruptive innovation in the industry. This is an ongoing project.

This pilot aimed to test, refine, and scale Treekind®, an alternative to animal and synthetic leathers made from green waste. The project focused on assessing the material’s performance, scalability, and manufacturing capabilities, aiming to produce 500 sqm of Treekind® for product applications.

The aim of the pilot was to tackle the environmental issues caused by virgin polybags in the fashion industry. This industry-first pilot aimed to create a closed-loop recycling solution for polybags, using post-consumer polybag waste and achieving a high level of recycled content suitable for industry needs.

The Sorting for Circularity Europe project was launched in early 2021 and initiated by Fashion for Good together with Circle Economy. The project was made possible by catalytic funding from Laudes Foundation and brand partners, adidas, BESTSELLER, Inditex and Zalando, with H&M Group as key project partners. The project addressed the need for data on textile waste in the market, identifying waste types and recycling opportunities.

The London Polybag Collection Scheme Pilot aimed to address the low recycling rates of polybags used in the fashion industry by trialling a scalable recycling infrastructure for collecting and processing polybag waste into new materials.

The Tracing Textile Waste Project by Fashion for Good and Textile Exchange focuses on improving transparency and traceability of textile waste in the reverse supply chain.

The aim of the pilot was to test and validate the FastFeetGrinded footwear recycling process by evaluating the quality of outputs and understanding the environmental impacts of the process. FastFeetGrinded is a company specialising in footwear recycling that accepts all types of footwear as feedstock to produce sorted material granulates with zero waste streams. FastFeetGrinded aims to deconstruct any type of pre- and post-consumer shoe, separating footwear into substituent components, which are then subsequently grinded down and processed to create material streams for repurposed use.

The T-REX Project brings together 13 major players from across the entire value chain to create a harmonised EU blueprint and business opportunities for closed loop sorting, and recycling of household textile waste. Transforming end-of-use textiles, from waste, into a desired feedstock, and a commodity for new business models that can be adopted at scale.

In a world first for the fashion industry, twelve pioneering players came together to break new ground by demonstrating a circular model for commercial garment production.

The aim of the project was to explore the use of agricultural residues to produce natural fibres, reducing reliance on conventional fibres like cotton. Building on the findings of the Laudes Foundation commissioned report ‘Spinning Future Threads’.

This project was designed to address the gap in knowledge and infrastructure for sustainable dyes by developing a tool to identify, assess, and select innovative dyestuffs based on specific metrics and fabric requirements. The project collaborates with brands, supply chain partners, and industry stakeholders to conduct comprehensive evaluations, aiming to facilitate an industry shift toward sustainable dye options. Structured in multiple rounds, each involving five innovators, the project includes trials at both lab and pilot scales, with support and guidance for participating innovators.

The project aimed to assess the potential for fibre-to-fibre recycling in the United States. The project evaluated consumer behaviour around textile disposal and analysed post-consumer textile waste to determine its suitability for recycling. The goal was to promote circularity by improving textile collection systems and supporting the development of recycling infrastructures and technologies.