New Circular Fibres initiative promotes circular economy

The New Circular Fibres initiative by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation promotes circular economy for textiles starting with clothing. Participants in the initiative will work together to define a vision for a new global fibres system, which will address the significant drawbacks of the 'take-make-dispose' model currently dominating the industry.

The initiative launched during the Copenhagen Fashion Summit is supported by a Core Philanthropic Funder, C&A Foundation, Core Corporate Partners H&M and NIKE, Inc., and a consortium of organisations including the Danish Fashion Institute, Fashion for Good, Cradle to Cradle and Mistra Future Fashion. The initiative's first report is due for publication in Autumn 2017.

"The way we produce, use, and reprocess clothing today is inherently wasteful, and current rising demand increases the negative impacts. The Circular Fibres Initiative aims to catalyse change across the industry by creating an ambitious, fact-based vision for a new global textiles system, underpinned by circular economy principles, that has economic, environmental, and social benefits, and can operate successfully in the long term," Dame Ellen MacArthur, founder, Ellen MacArthur Foundation said.

The new system for textiles will be based on the principles of a circular economy, generating growth that benefits citizens and businesses, while phasing out negative impacts such as waste and pollution – an economy fit for the 21st century. In 2016, the Foundation launched the New Plastics Economy initiative, bringing together industry to build a plastics system that works. The success of this initiative, which includes two major reports presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos, stakeholder workshops and significant media attention, has highlighted the importance of a pre-competitive, collaborative mindset amongst participants.