Exploring Circular Pathways and Responsible Disposal
of post-consumer apparel in countries receiving secondhand clothing exports
Why we need to act
Today, producer responsibility systems are mostly tied to the markets where products are first sold. But many post-consumer textiles cross borders, and their impacts are felt elsewhere. This results in a gap: producer responsibility systems provide support in one market, while the significant impacts of post-consumer textiles build up in another.
Apparel Recovery Coalition (ARC) will explore what it could look like for for producer responsibility contributions to better reflect post-consumer textile flows, turning funding, inclusive governance and shared learning into practical support for circular pathways and responsible waste management in countries that receive exported secondhand apparel.
What we do
ARC’s vision is to support the continued development of practical, responsible systems where post-consumer textiles are re-used, recycled or, where needed, managed as waste in ways that reduce environmental impact and reflect the role of local communities.
Our objectives
Explore how funding and practical support linked to post-consumer textile flows can help strengthen collection, sorting, reuse and recycling activities in recipient countries for used textiles, starting in Ghana
Test more inclusive approaches to governance, design, and implementation by bringing affected community perspectives into how priorities, activities, and learnings are shaped.
Generate practical learnings that may be useful to brands, PROs, policymakers, and other stakeholders working on producer responsibility for post-consumer textiles.
Who we are
Apparel Recovery Coalition (ARC) is co-founded by H&M Group, Inditex, BESTSELLER, adidas, The Or Foundation and supported by Circle Economy as the secretariat.
Facilitated by
Join the coalition
We are expanding our impact and looking for forward-looking organisations to collaborate with us.
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