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Be part of building a global circular textiles economy

Selection of fabric samples on white paper which have been affixed to the wall
  • Written byTash Payne
  • Published date 21 June 2021
Selection of fabric samples on white paper which have been affixed to the wall
Short-life circular material samples from the Mistra future Fashion research programme in the Centre for Circular Design materials archive Photo by Alys Tomlinson

Our Centre for Circular Design (CCD) is seeking volunteers ahead of World Circular Textiles Day on 8 October 2021. Volunteers can apply online to be part of building The Knowledge Hub, the world’s largest digital library of circular case studies.

Funded by UAL Social Design Institute, the CCD is calling for BA, MA and PhD students, recent graduates and early career researchers to work collaboratively with circularity experts over 10 weeks from July to September 2021. The Knowledge Hub will bring together the largest array of circular textile case studies in the world, to provide a snapshot of the industry today and guide the key priorities for circularity over the next three years.

World Circular Textiles Day seeks to galvanise people, organisations and businesses to reach a fully circular textiles world by 2050. This means keeping shared textile resources in continual circulation, replacing virgin resources with circular materials and achieving dignity, equity and equality for people involved in all parts of the circular value chain. The mission of the event is to provide a framework for circularity stakeholders to deliver a collaborative, evolving roadmap and chart circularity’s momentum annually on 8 October until 2050.

The Knowledge Hub will support this vision by providing the collective roadmap to assess progress over the next 30 years. It will raise awareness across the industry and wider public and cultivate an online umbrella to capture the growing community of companies, organisations, academia, government, cities and individuals working towards this collective goal.

Volunteers will choose a research area to focus on and be given guidance on finding and uploading examples to the online library. Participation is completely flexible; either a week full-time, part-time over 3+ weeks or on evenings and weekends. Volunteers will gain experience, CV credit and a certificate, as well as networking opportunities and opportunities to share knowledge. Apply online to take part.

Find out more about the Centre for Circular Design and World Circular Textiles Day.