Join us for a week of engaging discussions, insightful presentations and workshops with key industry stakeholders, delivering all you need to know about circularity in the textile & apparel supply chain.
Tuesday 10th November I Materials and design
Designing products and materials for circularity
Circularity begins long before a product reaches its end-of-life. The decisions made at the design stage determine not only how long a product lasts, but also whether it can be repaired, resold, remanufactured or recycled within a circular system. This session will explore how brands, manufacturers and supply chain partners can design for durability while aligning products with emerging circular business models. From material selection and construction techniques to repairability, traceability and product stewardship, attendees will gain practical insights into creating products that retain value for longer and perform effectively within resale, rental, take-back and recycling programmes.
The Stretching Circularity Project is a collaborative initiative led by Fashion for Good to validate next-generation elastane solutions that support a more circular textile economy. Elastane is a critical but problematic fibre — although it typically represents a small percentage of a garment, it is one of the most persistent barriers to textile-to-textile recycling, disrupting fibre recovery and pushing garments toward landfill or downcycling. The project brings together brands, innovators, supply chain partners and ecosystem experts to assess both bio-based and recycled elastane alternatives, as well as technologies that enable elastane separation and recycling from blended textiles — generating comparable data on performance, environmental impact and commercial feasibility to reduce adoption risk and unlock circular elastane solutions across apparel supply chains.
In this fast-paced PechaKucha session, innovators, researchers, start-ups and technology pioneers will showcase emerging materials, breakthrough technologies and early-stage developments that have the potential to reshape the industry's approach to circularity. From novel fibres and bio-based alternatives to advanced recycling technologies, material traceability solutions and new approaches to product design, each speaker will deliver a concise snapshot of their latest work and its implications for the future of the sector.
Designed to spark ideas, challenge assumptions and highlight opportunities on the horizon, this session offers a unique opportunity to discover cutting-edge innovations before they reach commercial scale and gain insight into the research and technologies that could define the circular textile & apparel value chain of tomorrow.
Wednesday 11th November I Technology and production
Implementing circular technologies in production
This presentation examines the current state of textile recycling technologies, with a focus on mechanical recycling and explores the key challenges hindering the transition to a circular textile system. Particular attention is given to the need for greater systemisation and standardisation throughout the textile value chain. Mechanically recycled fibres (from post-consumer waste), in particular, differ from their virgin counterparts in key processing properties – and will remain to do so in the near future. This applies, for example, to fibre length distribution, friction behavior and fibre breakage tendency. For chemically recycled fibres, resource consumption, feedstock security and market stabilisation in the post-consumer sector remain largely uncertain.
Although significant technological advances have been made in the automated sorting of a large portion of textile waste, the purification of these waste streams and their gentle opening and processing, a growing momentum is evident only in a small portion of the textile waste generated. On the one hand, the goal must be to achieve more consistent and high-quality recycled material properties. However, expertise in the appropriate processing of recycled fibres, material classifications, product information systems, quality assessment methods and recycling-oriented design principles is also essential for improving material flows. Thus, increasing recycling efficiency and strengthening market confidence in secondary raw materials.
The presentation argues that technological innovations alone are not sufficient to achieve a circular economy on a large scale. Rather, the development of systemic and reliable feedstocks, the efficient use of data in material flow management, the analysis and processing of recycled materials and interoperable systems are necessary to align the interests of stakeholders and enable effective circular business models. By highlighting current obstacles and opportunities, the presentation demonstrates how systematistion and standardisation can serve as decisive factors in advancing the circular economy in the textile sector and supporting the broader transition to a sustainable circular economy
The transition to circular production does not have to start from scratch. Across the textile & apparel industry, technology providers are developing practical solutions that can be integrated into existing manufacturing infrastructure, enabling businesses to reduce waste, recover resources and improve circular performance without downtime or operational disruption.
This panel brings together the innovators behind these technologies alongside manufacturers that have successfully implemented them in real-world production environments. Together, they will explore how circular technologies can be deployed within existing facilities, the operational and commercial considerations involved and the lessons learned from implementation. From recycling and resource recovery systems to process optimisation, digital tools and traceability solutions, the discussion will focus on what works today, where the barriers remain and how the industry can accelerate the shift from pilot projects to scalable adoption.
Circular fashion narratives focus on materials and waste. Water, meanwhile, remains linear: extracted, used once, discharged. This oversight costs communities, ecosystems, and supply chains.
This talk reframes water as the foundational circularity challenge in textile production. We'll discuss closed-loop water systems not as nice-to-have but as circularity infrastructure—examining wastewater treatment performance, reuse rates, and water risk assessments as markers of genuine circular practice. Drawing on field experience in South Asian textile hubs, we'll explore the questions factories need to answer and brands need to ask: Are water systems designed for reuse? Do treatment systems work? What does water justice look like at scale? When water stewardship becomes systemic, it transforms supply chain resilience and community water security simultaneously.
Thursday 12th November I Infrastructure - finance, funding, compliance and mobilisation
Building the financial, regulatory and ecosystem infrastructure required to make circularity commercially viable at scale
The transition to a circular textile & apparel industry requires more than innovation. It demands the financial, regulatory and operational infrastructure needed to scale new business models, technologies and supply chain practices across the industry.
This presentation will explore the mechanisms driving circularity from concept to commercial reality, including investment, public and private funding, policy frameworks, extended producer responsibility schemes and emerging financial incentives. It will examine how brands can unlock opportunities through early engagement with circular systems, while also addressing the practical challenges of investment, compliance, supply chain transformation and return on investment.
No single organisation can deliver a circular textile & apparel industry alone. Brands, manufacturers, recyclers, technology providers, investors and policymakers all have a role to play, yet meaningful collaboration remains one of the sector's greatest challenges.
This panel will explore what it takes to align stakeholders around shared circularity goals and why demonstrating clear commercial value is essential to driving participation. Panellists will discuss how successful partnerships are formed, where incentives are currently misaligned, and how organisations can build business cases that encourage investment, collaboration and long-term commitment. From shared infrastructure and data exchange to cross-value-chain partnerships and industry-wide initiatives, the discussion will examine the practical mechanisms needed to accelerate collective action.
Scaling textile-to-textile recycling is about more than developing the right technologies. We also need the infrastructure, investment, skills, markets and policy frameworks to support those technologies and make recycling commercially viable.
Drawing on UKFT’s research, industry engagement and work developing the National Textile Recycling Infrastructure Plan, this presentation will explore what is needed to move beyond individual innovations and pilot projects towards a more connected, coordinated and scalable textile recycling system.
It will explore the roles of different parts of the value chain, from brands and manufacturers to recyclers, technology providers, investors, policymakers and local authorities, and the importance of greater collaboration between them. This includes developing collection, sorting and pre-processing infrastructure, securing reliable feedstock and markets, building the skills and capabilities needed and creating the conditions for businesses to invest and scale, nationally and globally.
The presentation will also consider the role of policy, including Extended Producer Responsibility, in creating the right conditions for investment and supporting the development of recycling infrastructure.
Ultimately, the focus will be on the bigger picture: what needs to come together across the industry to make textile-to-textile recycling work at scale?
To find out more about Textile & Apparel Circularity Week, to apply to be a speaker, discover more on our sponsorship packages or discuss group/student bookings, please contact our events team.
