Leading the Circular Textiles Revolution

Developed in collaboration with Deloitte, our Circular Business Models (CBM) initiative provides a strategic framework for businesses to adopt and scale circular practices. By analyzing the current landscape, the report identifies key capabilities, operational gaps, and opportunities for improvement to support the transition to a sustainable circular economy.

Through industry engagement, expert interviews, and heat mapping, this project delivers actionable insights to help businesses implement circular strategies effectively. The final deliverable—a CBM Value Chain Capability Map report—will outline recommendations and next steps for industry adoption.

This project aims to provide both strategic guidance and practical tools to help Canadian brands, designers, and manufacturers, as well as fashion academic institutions, to adopt circular design principles.

This initiative includes two core resources:

• Circular Design Toolkit – A practical, hands-on resource adapted and licensed from WRAP International, featuring the 11 principles of circular design. The Toolkit offers templates, checklists, case studies, and decision-making tools tailored for the Canadian market.

• Circular Design Guideline – A high-level framework to reflect Canadian realities that will outline best practices, core design principles, and policy-aligned recommendations to strengthen industry alignment and inform regulatory pathways.

Through stakeholder engagement, gap analysis, and expert consultation, this project will ensure the Guideline is both robust and actionable—serving as a critical tool for businesses and governments alike to advance circularity in design.

Together, the Toolkit and Guideline will empower Canadian businesses to implement circular strategies effectively and support the evolution of policy and procurement standards.

This project aims to map Canada’s existing textile infrastructure—including secondhand collection, reuse, repair, upcycling, and recycling—and to identify the gaps, barriers, and opportunities needed to build a truly circular system.

A core component of the project is the Secondhand Collection and Diversion Network (SHCDN) Assessment, which gathers insights from charities, collectors, and resale networks to better understand the flow of post-consumer textiles—especially non-rewearable items—and the challenges they face.

Together with national stakeholder interviews and waste audit data, the project will deliver a comprehensive Infrastructure Gap Assessment and Material Flow Analysis (MFA) that will:

• Map current infrastructure across Canada (collection depots, sorting hubs, repair facilities, recyclers, and upcycling innovators)

• Track secondhand and end-of-life textile flows to resale, recycling, export, landfill, and downcycling

• Highlight regional capacity gaps and barriers to scaling reuse and recycling

• Inform key policies such as EPR, digital product passports, and green procurement

This work will provide the national data foundation needed to guide strategic investment and systems development for a circular textile economy in Canada.

This project is titled “Love Your Clothes” and aims to empower citizens to engage in the circular economy by prioritizing the 7 R’s waste hierarchy (reduce, reuse, repair, repurpose, resale, rent, recycle), and making more responsible purchasing and end-of-life decisions. Through accessible education and engagement, the initiative encourages the adoption of sustainable habits that contribute to waste reduction and resource efficiency.

A key component of this initiative is the development of a dedicated website that serves as a central hub for educational resources, helping the average person make informed choices about clothing consumption, use, disposal, and reuse. By increasing awareness and participation, the project aims to embed circular economy principles into everyday decision-making, creating long-term environmental and social benefits.

This completed research project explored the potential of using waste textiles from institutions—such as hospitals—to produce a biochar-like soil amendment for Canadian agriculture. Conducted in collaboration with Fanshawe College and Western University’s ICFAR, the study focused on converting post-consumer textiles into char and evaluating its effectiveness as a sustainable input for improving soil health.

The research involved growing kale in a controlled greenhouse setting, using textile-derived char to assess its impact on soil properties and plant growth. Initial findings are optimistic, showing promising results that warrant further investigation.

Next steps may include a field trial to assess real-world performance and environmental impact at scale.

A final report will be published in Fall 2025, detailing research protocols, greenhouse findings, and recommendations. It will also include a feasibility study assessing technical viability, market potential, operational requirements, and financial considerations. These insights will inform future research and engagement with agricultural stakeholders to evaluate the potential for larger-scale adoption of textile-derived char in Canada.

This committee brings together a diverse group of stakeholders—brands, recyclers, municipalities, NGOs, and academics—to shape and influence the policies needed for a circular textiles economy in Canada. As a national working group, the committee provides a unified industry voice in government consultations, tracks emerging regulations, and develops evidence-based policy recommendations on topics such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), Right to Repair, Digital Product Passports (DPPs), circular procurement, and ecodesign.

To advance its work, the committee operates through two subcommittees: one focused on drafting policy recommendations and position papers, and another on external engagement and advocacy strategy.