Global Fashion Agenda聽(GFA), with support from Deutsche Gesellschaft f眉r Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the H&M Foundation, has launched the Upstream Circularity Playbook, now available in six languages. This comprehensive resource draws on extensive case studies across multiple countries to provide a globally accessible, step-by-step guide specifically tailored for garment manufacturing regions. Designed to help stakeholders scale circular business models by valorising post-industrial textile waste, the Playbook equips manufacturing hubs with tools needed to drive sustainable change.
With over 520 global regulations now encouraging circularity and regionalisation in sourcing and design, the Playbook serves as a critical tool for establishing and scaling upstream circular ecosystems. It equips manufacturers, brands, policymakers, and investors with actionable strategies to implement circular fashion solutions in core manufacturing regions. With significant volumes of post-industrial textile waste yet to be properly harnessed, its consistency and high quality present a pivotal opportunity for scaling textile-to-textile recycling technologies in manufacturing regions. This can pave the way for recycling of post-use textiles and clothing. In Bangladesh alone, embracing textile recycling could unlock USD 4 to 5 billion聽annually through the export of recycled products, however, limited recycling capacity underscores a critical gap in industrial waste management.
The Upstream Circularity Playbook聽draws on over 20 case studies from diverse regions such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam, providing an international and regional perspective that fosters knowledge sharing across the fashion industry. The examples showcase successful collaborations between brands, manufacturers, recyclers, and textile waste collectors, offering a replicable model for scaling circular solutions in various global contexts. Collaboration across the entire value chain is critical for unlocking the full potential of circularity. The Upstream Circularity Playbook聽provides a roadmap for stakeholders to work together in building a just and scalable circular fashion system.
The Playbook offers a pragmatic, step-by-step framework for building the necessary infrastructure to scale circularity in garment manufacturing countries. It provides essential tools for:
- Segregating textile waste at the factory level to prevent contamination and enhance recycling quality.
- Leveraging digital traceability platforms to track waste flows and align with recycler requirements.
- Collecting, aggregating, and sorting textile waste to ensure it is properly prepared and delivered to recyclers.
- Matching textile waste to the best use case by selecting the most suitable recycling technologies to ensure high-quality material recovery.
- Designing for circularity聽by incorporating recycled materials into new products, contributing to the creation of a closed-loop system.
Federica Marchionni, CEO of Global Fashion Agenda, says: “The Upstream Circularity Playbook is a vital tool for embedding circularity across the fashion value chain on a global scale. By prioritising innovation and value creation in key manufacturing regions, we are using post-industrial waste to build the infrastructure needed to attract and scale recyclers, ultimately preparing these regions for post-consumer waste recycling and driving meaningful change worldwide.”