The Greater London Authority, London Councils, ReLondon, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation have joined forces to release a detailed action plan aimed at transforming London’s fashion and textile sector into a zero-waste, low carbon circular economy. This initiative is known as the London Circular Fashion Plan.
The London Circular Fashion Plan outlines a series of initiatives designed to mitigate the environmental impact of clothing consumption while bolstering the city’s fashion industry, which contributes £11 billion to Greater London’s GVA.
The plan is organized around three interconnected pillars to accelerate the shift towards circularity:
The first pillar, ‘Make things well,’ focuses on minimizing waste through improved design and manufacturing processes, enhancing product durability, repairability, and recyclability. This includes promoting the use of sustainable materials by fashion brands and designers.
The second pillar, ‘Use textiles for as long as possible,’ emphasizes extending the lifespan of products through care, maintenance, repair, reuse, rental, and sharing models.
The third pillar, ‘Reuse and recycle non-wearable textiles locally,’ aims to enhance practices and drive investments into infrastructure for collection, sorting, recycling, and reuse, ensuring materials remain within London.
Make things well
Through extensive consultations with 30 London boroughs and over 70 stakeholders from the fashion value chain, the London Circular Fashion Plan identifies nine priorities for implementation.
One of the key initiatives highlighted is the need for increased support for small businesses and collaboration with local authorities to integrate circular practices into the industry.
ReLondon’s Business Transformation programme assists London-based circular fashion businesses that are innovating in textile design and production. The ReWear grant programme, which is funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, provides small businesses with advice, connections, and financial backing to develop circular business models. The London Circular Fashion Plan suggests that additional funding could be allocated to extend these programmes to more small enterprises.
The Plan also proposes that public sector organizations, including councils, consider reforming their textile procurement strategies. It outlines potential guidelines, such as opting for recycled materials in company uniforms and promoting reuse and repair practices.
Use textiles for as long as possible
A repair voucher scheme, partially funded through the London Councils’ One World Living programme, will explore subsidizing professional repair services to support local businesses and alter citizen behavior. This initiative could yield co-benefits such as poverty alleviation, job retention, high street revitalization, and community development.
Education is another crucial element of the plan. A strategy for engaging schools will introduce educational resources, create textile reuse systems, and facilitate clothing distribution to families in need. Initial funding has been secured through the London Councils’ One World Living programme.
The development of an online map that identifies local resources such as textile banks, repair shops, scrap shops, hubs, and circular businesses aims to increase awareness and alter consumer behavior.
Research for the London Circular Fashion Plan indicated that London consumed 154,600 tonnes of new clothing in 2019—approximately 48 items per person annually. This consumption resulted in over 2 million tonnes of carbon emissions, equivalent to the total energy usage of homes in three inner London boroughs.
Building on ReLondon’s Love Not Landfill and Repair Week campaigns, the Plan introduces a Pan-London campaign to promote circular alternatives such as second-hand purchasing, rentals, swapping, and sharing throughout the city. By collaborating with boroughs, charities, businesses, and educational institutions, the campaign will highlight existing infrastructure and initiatives while creating new tools to reach broader audiences.
“By promoting business models like rental, resale, repair, and remaking, and making the case for more ambitious policy and investment – London and Londoners can indeed set the trend,” stated Chloe Holland, Fashion Initiative Programme Manager at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Reuse and recycle non-wearable textiles locally
A key feature of the London Circular Fashion Plan is the establishment of circular economy hubs for textiles, designed to create local spaces for recovery, remanufacturing, or reuse of textiles. Initial funding has been secured through the UKRI’s Future Fibres Network+ to support this research.
According to the Plan, Londoners discard around 142,700 tonnes of clothing each year (approximately 44 items per person), with over 40 percent ending up in waste bins. As of 2024, only five boroughs provide weekly kerbside textile collections.
Aligning with industry initiatives like the ACT UK project, the Plan advocates for developing the necessary infrastructure to sort and process post-consumer textiles effectively. By evaluating borough needs and supporting skills development related to sorting, collection, and redistribution, this action aims to enhance London’s capacity to manage non-wearable textiles appropriately.
This aligns with the London Circular Fashion Plan’s objective of increasing capture rates for discarded textiles by establishing segregated clothing collection services across all London boroughs. The initiative would set measurable targets and develop communication materials to guide citizens on how to dispose of unwanted textiles properly, thereby reducing contamination in waste streams.
“This plan is both timely and critical to support the move to a circular economy. Its multi-stakeholder approach will not only drive significant positive change within the local fashion industry, but it will also set a precedent for other areas in the UK and overseas to follow. It will foster innovation, create green jobs, and promote a sustainable economic model that benefits society as a whole,” expressed Adam Mansell, CEO of the UK Fashion and Textiles Association (UKFT).
