Fashion Takes Action (FTA) and the Canadian Circular Textiles Consortium (CCTC) are taking a collective action approach to tackle the deeply flawed “take-make-waste” textile industry model. Discover the details in this exclusive interview with Kelly Drennan, Founding Executive Director of Fashion Takes Action, as featured in Circular Economy Magazine.
Consumers are purchasing and disposing of new clothes more than ever before, creating a massive textile waste problem and releasing synthetic microfibres into our environment. To help the fashion industry shift toward a more sustainable way of working, we need to shift from the harmful “take-make-waste” model.
We spoke with Kelly Drennan, Founding Executive Director of Fashion Takes Action, about how Fashion Takes Action (FTA) and the Canadian Circular Textiles Consortium (CCTC) are advancing circularity and driving sustainable impact in the Canadian textile industry.
I started Fashion Takes Action (FTA) in 2007 out of a desire to see a more sustainable future for my two daughters. It began with Green Gala events showcasing 20 sustainable Canadian designers and has since grown to work with over 2,000 businesses globally. FTA advances sustainability, ethics, and circularity in fashion through awareness-building, education, collaborations, and research, furthering change across the entire fashion system and empowering both citizens and businesses to take action.
The Canadian Circular Textiles Consortium (CCTC) was founded in 2023 to address fragmented circular economy efforts and drive systemic change in Canada. Built on eight years of work in textile circularity and growing demand for post-consumer waste solutions, FTA recognized the need for collective action to support climate and biodiversity goals. With funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada and strategic support from Deloitte, the CCTC unites stakeholders to foster collaboration, reduce duplication, and accelerate Canada’s transition to a circular textile system.
The fashion industry struggles to adopt circular economy practices due to overproduction and a culture of disposability. With over 100 billion garments made annually and ultra-fast fashion brands releasing up to 10,000 styles daily, consumption is driven to unsustainable levels. Consumers now buy 60% more clothing than 20 years ago but keep them half as long, wearing each item only seven times on average. This shift has turned fashion into a cheap, disposable commodity.
Key challenges include transitioning to circular models like resale, repair, and rental, complicated by the widespread use of synthetic fibres, which shed harmful microfibres, and when blended with other fibres, are hard to recycle. The fast production cycles and poor garment quality further hinder durability and repairability.
To address these issues, the industry must adopt circular design principles — creating durable, repairable, and recyclable garments with safer materials and green chemistry, while considering end-of-life components like buttons and zippers. This shift will help the fashion industry move toward sustainability and long-term value.
The circular textiles space is experiencing transformative innovations that are set to redefine the fashion industry. There are four key developments of note. The first is fibre-to-fibre recycling, which includes chemical recycling: advanced technologies that break down textile waste, including blended fibres, into high-quality raw materials like cellulose and polyester for reuse; and mechanical recycling: improved processes that enhance the efficiency and quality of recycled fibres, particularly for cotton and wool.
The second development is bio-based and regenerative fibres. This includes lab-grown alternatives: materials like mycelium leather and spider silk that offer sustainable substitutes to traditional textiles; agricultural byproducts: fibres sourced from food waste or industrial byproducts that provide innovative, eco-friendly inputs; and regenerative agriculture: improved farming methods for natural fibres such as cotton and hemp that enhance soil health and sequester carbon.
The third development is AI and data-driven solutions. This includes digital product passports: technologies like RFID and blockchain that improve transparency by detailing materials, care instructions, and recyclability; waste sorting: AI-powered systems that enhance the sorting of textile waste for effective recycling; and demand prediction: data tools that optimize production, reducing overproduction and associated waste.
The fourth development is policy and collaboration. This includes initiatives like extended producer responsibility (EPR) that encourage accountability for a garment’s entire life cycle.
These innovations signify a shift in how textiles are designed, produced, and managed, enabling a transition to a more sustainable and circular future.
We are taking a collective action approach to tackle the deeply flawed textile waste system, uniting over 120 stakeholders from across the entire value chain to drive meaningful change. United by a common goal, we aim to divert textiles from landfills — both locally and in the Global South — and extend their use for as long as possible.
Systemic change requires collaboration among the public and private sectors, as well as civil society. Each of our projects involves diverse stakeholders, ensuring that decisions are informed by their potential impact across the value chain. This cross-sector collaboration enables us to design solutions that create shared value and drive meaningful, sustainable change.
The CCTC envisions an integrated, circular system that eliminates global textile waste and advances the transition to a regenerative economy. Our goal is to optimize resource use across Canada’s textile value chain and enable a sustainable circular textiles system.
To achieve this, we focus on four core approaches. These are 1.) policy influence: advocating for industry standardization, regulations, and policies to support textile circularity; 2.) education and behaviour change: promoting circular economy principles and encouraging action through public education and awareness campaigns; 3.) data and insights: addressing gaps in data on material flows, policies, initiatives, and their impact in Canada; and 4.) innovation and pilots: driving innovation by supporting pilot projects to test circular business models and explore new solutions.
Our efforts are guided by an action-oriented roadmap that identifies key initiatives, assigns responsibility to stakeholders, and prioritizes impactful actions. This roadmap has enabled the CCTC and its partners to collaborate on the following projects:
Through these initiatives, the CCTC is building a foundation for systemic change in the Canadian textile industry, advancing circularity, and driving sustainable impact.
Policy and regulation are crucial to advancing circularity in Canada’s textiles and apparel industry, providing the framework, incentives, and enforcement mechanisms necessary for sustainable change.
A potential policy could include the establishment of standards and regulations that require circular principles to be embedded in design, production, and disposal processes, compelling manufacturers to use safer materials and adopt eco-design practices.
Extended producer responsibility (EPR) holds producers accountable for their products’ life cycle, driving recycling, reuse, and eco-design. It supports recycling infrastructure and circular business models, and reduces environmental impact while aligning with consumer demand for sustainability and fostering green economic opportunities. We now see EPR for textiles in both the EU and California.
Tax incentives and grants can stimulate innovation in textile recycling, bio-based materials, and circular business models. Additionally, there are public awareness campaigns and regulations that can educate consumers on the environmental impact of fast fashion, promoting responsible purchasing, repair, and recycling, and ensuring transparency through clear labelling.
Of course, cohesive national strategies are needed to ensure consistent implementation of circular initiatives across Canada, streamlining efforts and enabling collaboration.
As other countries strengthen circularity regulations, Canada must act to remain competitive and meet international sustainability standards.
My hope is that in 10 years’ time, Canada’s circular economy for textiles will be characterized by a robust system where garments are designed for longevity, reuse, and recyclability, with a significant reduction in waste. By then, textiles will be part of a well-established circular supply chain that prioritizes local processing and recycling, with advanced technologies in textile-to-textile recycling and waste management. EPR will be widely implemented, ensuring that manufacturers are accountable for the entire life cycle of their products, driving eco-design and fostering innovation in recycling infrastructure.
Fashion Takes Action will continue to play a crucial role by driving this transformation. Through its leadership in policy advocacy, education, and collaboration, FTA will help shape regulations that promote sustainability across the textile value chain. Its initiatives, including research, public awareness campaigns, and support for pilot projects, will guide the industry toward circular models like resale, rental, and repair. FTA will also be instrumental in building industry-wide partnerships, helping align stakeholders from the public, private, and civil sectors to create a truly circular textile economy in Canada.
This story was featured in the Circular Economy Magazine:
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