The circular economy in the textile industry

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increase in the production of textiles and clothing, which is the result of an increase in the global population and an improvement in living standards. The consequence of this fact is the unlimited use of resources for the needs of the production process of textiles and clothing, as well as an increase in the amount of generated textile waste, which is currently not treated adequately. For the textile industry to have a chance in the future to take advantage of environmental, economic and social opportunities that it is currently unable to do, it is necessary to transform the current, linear system into a circular system. The paper presents the possibility of implementing the basic principles of the circular economy in the textile and clothing industry. According to the principles of the circular economy, the textile industry is based on the realization of four activities: elimination of unwanted substances and release (emission) of microfibers, increasing the utilization of clothing, improving the recycling sector, efficient use of resources and switching to renewable sources.