In a recent feature by Texpertise, a platform powered by Messe Frankfurt GmbH, our founder Marina Chahboune shared her insights into the transformative potential of efficient textile waste management. Texpertise is known for its dedication to fostering collaboration and innovation within the textile and apparel industries, serving as a bridge between global market players and providing valuable perspectives on sustainability, technology, and industry trends. As part of Messe Frankfurt GmbH, one of the world’s leading trade fair organisers, the Texpertise platform has become a trusted voice in promoting sustainable practices and forward-thinking solutions for the textile sector, connecting more than 500,000 industry participants from all over the world.

In the interview, Marina Chahboune highlighted how approximately 35-47% of raw materials in the textile supply chain become waste during production, often incinerated or sent to landfill despite their high recycling potential. She explained how CLF’s Textile Waste Management Standard (TWMS) is reshaping the way textile waste is perceived and handled by addressing these inefficiencies. At its core, TWMS is designed to create a systemic approach supporting waste handlers, recyclers and manufacturers of all tiers to establish standardised and compliant practices to manage and monitor their waste flows by addressing key pain points and risks. Lack of waste management practices results in a shortage of waste as feedstock accessibility for recycling and further usage; and consequently detracts investments for advanced recycling technologies needed to enable circular supply chains.
Our TWMS aligns with globally recognized standards such as the Global Recycled Standard (GRS) and the Higg Facility Environmental Module (Higg FEM), ensuring compliance and credibility in sustainable practices. It also leverages innovative tools, including an app designed for mapping waste streams, which provides stakeholders with actionable insights.
Here are some of the pivotal ways TWMS by CLF is making an impact:
Streamlined Management Processes: By simplifying and standardising waste management, TWMS ensures that materials destined for recycling or further usage are efficiently handled and monitored, increasing the likelihood of their reuse & repurpose.
Increased Material Traceability and Accessibility of Feedstock: Transparency is the core of compliant circular supply chains. TWMS introduces efficient tracking mechanisms that enable monitoring the journey of waste materials from point of generation, to collection and the reintegration.
Reduced CO₂ Emissions: Efficient waste management practices not only provide accessibility to resources but also significantly cut down carbon emissions, by directing waste from burning or land-filling into more preferred disposal methods such as recycling.
Marina emphasized the importance of creating scalable and sustainable systems that benefit both the environment and businesses. “The textile industry’s transformation lies in its ability to integrate circular practices at every level. Our TWMS is a blueprint for turning waste into opportunity,” she noted during the interview. To dive deeper into our vision and our ongoing work to revolutionise textile waste management, read the full article on Texpertise.