New American Circular Textiles Group Hopes to Advance Circular Textile Policy

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A new group focused on advancing circular textile policy in the US was announced this week. The American Circular Textiles (ACT) policy group was spearheaded by CSG (Circular Services Group), RRS (Resource Recycling Systems), and 11 founding organizations. ACT aims to align fashion’s circularity community on the development of policy to address the challenges to improving domestic textile recovery and end-of-life solutions, the nation’s fastest-growing waste stream. Their initial focus is on textile reuse. 

The founding organizations believe ACT provides a critical missing piece in achieving the research, funding, and policy support that the circular economy will need to scale in the United States.

ACT’s 2022 objective is to publish a position paper by the end of the year, outlining industry-supported policy suggestions that will advance textile reuse, a preferred materials management approach starting at the top of the circular economy waste hierarchy. The position paper will be directed to local and state legislators, policymakers, and government officials.

In the coming weeks, ACT will bring on additional select circular economy service providers, including repair organizations, as well as brands and retailers, industry NGOs, non-profits, academic institutions, and government agencies. The group is action-oriented and will “facilitate honest dialogue concerning the fashion sector’s unique circular economy challenges, agree upon supportive policy recommendations, and provide learnings from outside stakeholders,” according to the organizations.

The world’s biggest fashion businesses are lagging in their efforts to achieve sustainable business practices, new data from The Business of Fashion (BoF) reveals. The BoF Sustainability Index 2022 finds that incremental progress among a handful of larger players assessed last year is eclipsed by wider industry inaction, as the time left for fashion to curb its impact by 2030 – a milestone for global sustainability goals – runs short.