NIST & ASTM International Publish Report Highlighting Standards Needs for Circular Textiles

103.5 pounds (47 kilograms) – that’s the average amount of textile waste each American produced in 2018. Things like clothing, footwear, sheets, towels, and pillowcases, even furniture, carpets, and tires contain textiles. What becomes of these textiles when we’re finished with them? The unfortunate fate for 85% of our used textiles is landfills or oceans. So how do we put a stop to this waste and instead keep textiles in circulation? Ultimately, the answer comes down to reducing inputs, improving design, and more effectively repairing, reusing, and recycling. 

Improving the circularity of textiles will require technological, social, and policy strategies. Cross-sector collaboration and interoperability of systems are crucial to facilitate the sharing of data and information and foster the development and uptake of circular solutions. Standards could play an important role in this transition as they can harmonize language and processes across the value chain and between sectors, support market development and stabilization, and ultimately build trust in the system. 

To assess and understand the need for standards, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC), and ASTM International co-hosted the “Workshop on Identifying Standards Needs to Facilitate a Circular Economy for Textiles” in October 2023. This virtual event convened stakeholders from across the value chain and life cycle of textiles, including brands, collectors, recyclers, researchers, consultants, and policymakers, to discuss standards needs in the key areas of terminology, textile sorting, input specifications for textile recycling, guidelines for circular design, and digital product passports. NIST and ASTM International recently published the resulting “Standards Needs for Circular Textiles Workshop Report.” Kathryn Beers, NIST Material Measurement Laboratory Director, and founder of the NIST Circular Economy Program, said of the report, “Textiles are an essential part of life, but we can be more thoughtful about how much of them we use and discard. We want to help everyone in the supply chain do better and set a higher standard to empower simpler, cleaner, and less material in production. Standards can help us achieve these goals and this report is an important step in that direction.” 

The workshop report summarizes:

1. The role of standards in textile circularity. Standards act as guidelines for ensuring consistency and organization for a community. Developing open, consensus-based standards is critical in the transition to a CE. Harmonizing and standardizing circularity metrics, methods, tools, and practices across the supply chain would foster information and data sharing, improve market stability, and enable consumer trust. This includes establishing metrics and methodologies to ensure that materials are traceable and environmental impact assessments are consistent, reliable, and verifiable such that resulting “green” claims can be substantiated.
    
2. Standards identified to support textile circularity. Standards are needed in the areas of 1) Terminology, 2) Textile Sorting and Grading to Enable Reuse and Repair, 3) Textile Recycling, 4) Design for Circularity, and 5) Digital Product Passports.    
    
3. The next steps and processes for standards development in this area. A natural starting point for this community is to consider working through the existing SDO efforts for textiles through ASTM and AATCC. One place where significant effort could be directed is the identification and harmonization of terminology used throughout the textile ecosystem. The figure below provides a general roadmap for how standards might evolve to support textile circularity.

Read the Report Here