Accelerating Circularity receives $1.2M from Walmart Foundation

Posted January 19, 2021

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The Walmart Foundation awarded Accelerating Circularity a grant of $1.2 million for circular textile-to-textile systems trials using spent textiles generated on the East Coast of the United States.

Accelerating Circularity’s 2020 research on spent textiles, collectors, sorters, preprocessors and recyclers showed opportunities and gaps. We will create links through multi-party collaborations as part of newly identified circular models.

The grant has been awarded to validate circular systems models through trials, which aim to move spent textiles through the key nodes of circular systems: collecting, sorting, preprocessing and chemical and mechanical recycling through fiber, fabric and garment making and – to close the loop – brands and retailers.

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Accelerating Circularity is collaborating with product digitization pioneers Eon, leveraging their CircularID™ Protocol to support the implementation of circular product passports. Validated systems can help with the uptake of new circular business models and employment opportunities for each of these new or expanding businesses.

Circular systems success requires industry wide collaborations. It has already engaged industry organizations and individual companies throughout the supply network, and it will recruit new participants who recognize that working together is essential through open calls. Connection at each step from collecting spent textiles to demand is the key to success.

Open calls will include:

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• Brands and retailers who want to offer circular products to their customers

• Cut & sew manufacturers who can make circular products

• Others who have technologies and processes that will support circular systems

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Accelerating Circularity is a collaborative industry project developed to accelerate the textile industry’s move from linear to circular. It was founded in 2019 with a mission to establish systems that will use the embedded value and resources in existing textiles for new products, reducing the millions of tons of textile waste annually going into landfills and thereby supporting the reduction of the industry’s GHG emissions.

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To date, Accelerating Circularity has established working partnerships and collaborations throughout the industry and developed practical research on and actionable recommendations for functioning circular systems.

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Source: Accelerating Circularity