Apparel industry is a diverse sector that plays an important role in European manufacturing industry. According to the European Commission, this particular industry employs over 1.7 million people and generates a turnover of EUR 166 billion per year. Although a constantly evolving sector, trying to maintain its competitiveness and quality through products with added value, apparel products do have damaging impact for the environment. According to United Nations Environmental Programme, today, fashion accounts for up to 10% of global carbon dioxide output – more than international flights and shipping combined. It also accounts for a fifth of the 300 million tons of plastic produced globally each year. As commonly known, the word “polyester” – encountered in most apparel products is a ubiquitous form of plastic deriving for oil, overtaking cotton as the backbone of textile production. Moreover, garments made from polyester and other synthetic fibres are a prime source of microplastic pollution – especially harmful to marine life. These negative impacts have their roots in a linear model that is characterized by low rates of use, reuse repair and fibre‐to‐fibre recycling of textiles and that often does not put quality, durability and recycling as priorities for the design and manufacturing of apparel. On the other hand, and taking into consideration technological progress and global trends, it is vital to put effort on the alteration of the fashion industry. The radical shift towards more sustainable practices demands skilled and educated persons who are able to understand negative environmental footprint and drive towards change. Vocational education and training could play a key role into setting the foundations of creating “the green designers” of tomorrow, interested not only on the final products but the whole production oriented into more sustainable habits, including material collection processes, design & sewing, energy consumption and distribution.

SOLSTICE aims at demonstrating 4 replicable systemic solutions for the territorial deployment of the circular economy (CEC) for the major industrial sector of textiles (62Mt produced/year). All steps of waste prevention and management will be included in a 5R strategy: Refuse/Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Repurpose, Recycle. The solutions developed can be replicated and cross-linked with the plastics value chain. SOLSTICE will: • Develop tools and strategies to implement the 5R approach: oFor the 4R Refuse/Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Repurpose: - Engage the different stakeholders (industrial companies, local authorities, citizens) to revise their supply chains / behaviour, and become more sober, circular and sustainable. - Scope and map current state, carry research on and analysis of relevant circular interventions per territory, - Create a methodology and blueprints of CEC interventions to be tested/piloted - Define circular guidelines and indicators oRecycle: Demonstrate innovative chemical recycling technologies, able to treat efficiently part of the major streams of polymers in textiles and plastics (PET, elastane, polyamide, polyurethane) in mild conditions. The technologies allow to recycle multicomponent and bio-based materials, complex streams, and to recycle textile into textile or coating into coating (closed-loop) or into added-value applications (open loop). They are easily adaptable and allow a local recycling. • Set-up a traceability system based on a Digital Product Passport and designed in relation to existing initiatives. The demonstration will take place in 4 EU representative and complementary territories. Knowledge-transfer and cooperation between the cities and regions involved, and with CCRI and other stakeholders and projects, will ensure an optimised development and deployment of the new circular concepts, as well as the replicability of the concept and a maximal impact. The deployment of SOLSTICE could save 4.3-10.8 Mt GHG emissions/year by 2030.

Over the years, fashion industries have played and continue to play key role in the competitiveness of the European economy. With almost 850 000 companies, 5 million jobs, and another 3 million jobs to be found throughout the supply chain, the Fashion industry can contribute to further economic growth and a strengthening of the competitive position of the EU economy as a whole.Due to pressures for change resulting notably from trade liberalization and increasing external competition, consumer developments, technological advances, changes in production costs and environmental issues, the fashion industries are characterized by continuing restructuring and modernization. This change indeed requires a more qualified workforce to deal with new technologies, stimulate innovation, ensure quality management and develop international strategies and marketing. Therefore, the availability of adequately skilled workers has become one of the major issues for the fashion industries. Fashion industries faced the shortage of trained and qualified personnel for their export and fashion marketing departments. Recognizing their critical role, recent European efforts, such as the European Skills Council of Textile Clothing Leather & Footwear and the European Fashion Industries Alliance, have come together in order to strengthen the comparative advantages of the fashion industries which include, among others, the well-educated and high-skilled professional workforce of the industry. Other factors include the rapid advance of digital technologies, the globalisation of networks and the deregulation of media. Employees from the fashion industries, students and SME’s, who would like to succeed, have to adapt to globalised market and ICT-based vocational education and training. Therefore a precise and effective ICT training tool for development, enhancement and boost of their transversal skills, is inevitably demanding.Fashion industries also need a flexible workforce that can respond to the development and the globalized market and the trend and need for internationalization. The workforce needs to be well qualified and ready to face the increased competition and rapid technological changes. To be compete in the global market fashion industries have to be smarter and able to adapt to changes. To achieve this, fashion industries need new education and training systems and tools for their existing and potential workforce in order to respond to the demands of the labour market and the global competition. In a framework of global competition, innovation and development are crucial elements to provide fresh impetus to a sustainable and competitive industry.In this context, the proposed project aims to design and develop an innovative and comprehensive training tool for export personnel of fashion industries, using ICT-based learning approaches and methodologies that will offer essential transversal skills for enabling them be ready to respond to international trade and market demands and enhancing the extroversion and the competitiveness of the industry as a whole. Bringing together the different sectors of fashion industries, the proposed tool will follow a comprehensive learner-centered approach based on acquired knowledge, skills and competences, in line with the European Qualification Framework (EQF). The objective of the proposed project is the design and implementation of an innovative and comprehensive training tool. Work-based training ICT tools in fashion industries are generally very outdated. They exist, but their availability is often not sufficient, the content is out-of-date and its distribution is not organised satisfactorily. Majority of present information materials regarding exports and global market information are at disposal only in paper form and most of them don’t cover modern trends, materials and fashion. Therefore, such a professional tool is considered extremely useful, since it helps to enhance the international extroversion of the sector especially for SME’s. The platform will focus on online training and will facilitate dissemination of knowledge and sharing of experience. Moreover, it will serve as a medium for all stakeholders in the field to share concerns and advice, as well as promote employment opportunities.The platform will respond to fashion marketing skills and for that scope will concentrate information and data regarding third countries market mechanisms and their function market’s technical requirements, recent trends of fashion marketing and expo’s evaluation in the global market, market’s development, development of the demand of sector’ s products, consumer’s behaviors and habits, trend analysis, demand chain, mechanisms for directs distribution of a product to international markets (by identifying customers;meeting their needs; implementing sales plans).

Circula-TEX, with its multidisciplinary approach, aims to support the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles by facilitating the redesign of textile value chains through the adoption of a circular approach and ensuring compliance with the expectations of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes and European directives. The project will delve into the failures and gaps in the current textile value chain, particularly in terms of technological, environmental, economic, legal, and social aspects, and will explore the effectiveness of EPR schemes and other technological and non-technological measures to maximize the sustainability of the textile sector. The project will employ co-creation approaches to engage all stakeholders in the value chain and relevant case studies to develop actionable recommendations for circular textile management. These recommendations will include solutions to enhance the scalability of textile recycling and reuse through eco-design strategies, efficient systems for material composition identification and labeling to support textile collection and sorting, as well as traceability of information, and innovative approaches for reuse and waste treatment. Circula-TEX aims to provide evidence-based criteria for the harmonized implementation of EPR schemes and associated policies across the Member States. An innovative labeling system, in line with the Digital Product Passport and Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation directive(ESPR), will be developed to provide consumers, waste collectors, and reuse/recycling organizations with valuable practical information and promote reuse and the uptake of secondary materials in the market. The findings, initially applied and validated across four case studies, are expected to be expanded and replicated in various textile market segments and EU countries.

CISUTAC will tackle current bottlenecks in the transition to circular textiles and clothing. For scale and significance, we focus on polyester, cotton & cellulosic fibres (together ca. 90% of textile materials) and products from 3 sub-sectors: garments, active goods and workwear. In this way, we will have a representative view on the challenges the textile sector is facing for circular transition. CISUTAC follows a holistic approach covering the technical, sectoral and socio-economic levels. We will provide systemic innovations at these levels and perform 3 pilots to demonstrate their feasibility and value: (i) Repair and disassembly; (ii) Sorting for reuse and recycling; (iii) Circular garments through fibre to fibre recycling and design for circularity. To realise these pilots, we will develop semi-automated workstations, analyse infrastructure and material flow, digitally enhance sorting operations and setup interventions with consumers. After the piloting phase, attention will be on the uptake of the results, by the sector, by the wider stakeholder group as well by the consumers. With (worldwide) leading brands and companies, CSOs, RTOs and EU associations, CISUTAC is truly EU-wide and covers the full novel circular value chain. Through the consortium, and further supported by the Transition Support Group with zz members, CISUTAC is strongly linked to ongoing initiatives allowing synergies and joint activities. This is essential for our implementation but also for leveraging the impact and enabling the shift towards a sustainable EU textiles & clothing, underpinned by circular material flows and supported by the wider stakeholders. CISUTAC will bring significant impact of scale via its innovations on repair, dismantling, sorting and fibre-to-fibre recycling. Realising this impact will lead to a reduction of ca. 975ktonCO2eq yearly and to new business activities and markets that together have a value of ca. €250mio and lead to ca. 1300 FTE, also social economy.