Waste Not Want Not: Re-routing Garment and Textile Waste Streams to Create Circular Fashion Design Eco-systems in Bangladesh and Beyond

This chapter provides a critical analysis of circularity initiatives aimed at reducing waste during the upstream production of textiles and garments and assesses the challenges and potential solutions in pre-competitive spaces and innovative design thinking. After highlighting the environmental issues underlying the linear, extractive textile and garment production processes that are increasingly of concern to a range of stakeholders across the global supply chain and exploring potential technology-based solutions and required policy frameworks, attention will be turned to the management of clothing and accessory production in Bangladesh as the critical site of analysis. The chapter will highlight the problems facing textile and fashion producers seeking circular solutions for the effective management and recycling of post-industrial waste with the potential to keep materials in an unending or renewable loop of production and use.