Towards a Circular Supply Chain for Textiles: an overview of cases

The fashion industry is currently the second most polluting one in the world, after the oil and gas sector. Moving to a Circular Economy for textiles is thus a topic of great concern and relevance. However, and even though Circular Economy is now on the rise in the policy agenda, this model is still not applied on a large scale. Providing success cases of companies operating in the fashion industry who succeeded in implementing Circular Economy is of paramount importance for the widespread of this paradigm. Thus, this paper carries out a multiple case study of companies that, by operating in the wool supply chain, has successfully started to provide a Circular Economy solution. Put together, these cases become an excellent example of a Circular Supply Chain for textiles based on recycled wool, since they reduce the environmental impact and contribute in closing the loop. The cross-case analysis led to the identification of a set of key elements that are needed for introducing Circular Economy in the textile industry. As a result, legislation, product design, certification labels, traceability and competences emerged as focal points on which to invest in order to successfully set up a Circular Supply Chain for textiles. Although preliminary, this exploratory research lays the foundation for a stronger and more systemic understanding of the role of the ecosystem in a Circular Supply Chain architecture, at least for textiles.