Sustainability and Circular Economy in the Textile Industry

The textile industry, a traditional and skill-driven sector, faces challenges in circularizing products and needs innovative thinking for weaving sustainable approaches in day-to-day practices. In 2023, the global textile market was estimated to be around 31 trillion USD and employed over 300 million people globally. The enormous presence brings a significant waste generation and carbon footprint from production and processing that affects climate change on regional and global levels. Circularizing the textile industry can create huge impacts, but the integration needs to keep a tight balance between being circular and surviving in the market. The current chapter tries to critically evaluate all the stakeholders, manufacturers, consumers, retail market, and supply chain for their role in making the textile a sustainable market. It attempts to address nuances of balance required from the stage of design re-thinking to manufacturing in the textile industry.