The issue of textile waste management is a priority within the EU, and from the 1st of January 2025 onwards member states must establish systems for the separate collection of textiles.
In Germany, currently more than 1 million tons of used textiles are collected annually, which is the equivalent of two billion pieces of clothing. The amount collected has more than tripled in the last 25 years. To achieve a more sustainable use of resources, new and more circular processes are needed.

Closed Loop Fashion, in partnership with the knowledge building non-profit organization Circular Berlin has conducted a Design Thinking workshop series for the expert group (EG) on circular economy of the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (Textilbündnis) members.

This workshop series was intended to be a first step for encouraging a dialogue between the different stakeholder with the objective to identify collaborative approaches and potential strategies for establishing take-back systems and reversible supply chains and logistics for post-consumer textiles, unsold stock und customer rejects, aiming to create new cooperation models along the textile chain by considering the diversity of actors in the current system and new actors such as brands and textile manufacturers.

The workshop was initiated by the sector project (SV) Sustainability in Textile Supply Chains of the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) who is leading on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (Textilbündnis), which counts about 50% of the German textile and apparel companies as its members.