ASTM releases textile circularity standards report

ASTM International, West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, has published a report on a recent workshop, hosted jointly with the Gaithersburg, Maryland-based National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC), on how standards can support a transition to circular textiles.

The Standards Needs for Circular Textiles Workshop Report covers various areas where standards would be helpful, including terminology, sorting and grading, recycling, labeling and design for circularity.

“This workshop brought together many knowledgeable experts from across the textile circularity value chain to present their efforts,” says Kelsea Schumacher, environmental engineer at NIST. “Through deep and interactive discussions, we worked together to identify the necessary standards to accelerate circularity for textiles.”

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Terminology standards facilitate conformity across stakeholders, creating a common language foundation for markets, policies and other standards to be built.

The workshop identified several organizations that have compilations of relevant definitions of terms and concluded these organizations should be included in future standardization efforts because they represent different stakeholders in the textile value chain. Some of these groups include government organizations; industry-specific organizations, such as Salvation Army and Goodwill; and nonprofit and interest groups, such as Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (SMART) and the National Association for Charitable Textile Recycling (NACTR).

Because textile material streams contain various material types, different colors, garments of varying condition and materials like fasteners, there is great need for standardization in sorting and grading.

“The sorting and recycling industries need to collaborate to achieve the best possible outcomes for a circular textile industry,” the report says and specifies that social enterprises should also be included in these discussions because they can provide valuable collection and processing infrastructure. The report also says that collaboration with brands will be necessary in establishing feedback loops and improving product labeling.

The following standards needs were identified through the workshop as it pertains to sorting and grading:

• Best practices for grading for resale, repair and recycling;
• Best practice methods for sorting textile materials for recycling;
• Classifications of textile materials to enable advanced sorting; and
• Test methods for rapid identification of textile composition.

Specifications for garment labels identified by the workshop include information about material composition, additives and finishes and care instructions.

Recycling standards will also be necessary in creating a circular textile industry. According to the report, best practices need to be developed in removing disruptive components from textiles as well as tracking material chain of custody and reporting recycled content.

The workshop also included discussions about the role of brands in circular product development and concluded that the industry needs a design guide for textile circularity. Although design workflows prioritizing efficiency, functionality and consumer appeal already exist, these approaches often do not consider a garment’s environmental impact throughout its life cycle.

“Design guides focused on circularity are essential to bridge this gap and contribute to a more circular textiles industry,” the report says, acknowledging the conflicting relationship between different design features, such as design for durability versus design for recyclability. Finding a balance between these two features is crucial.

The report identified a roadmap of next steps, which first includes focusing on updating terminology and data standards before working through design, grading, sorting and recycling, labeling and transparency standards.

Read the full report here.