Global Industry Alliance · Est. 2025

Closing the Loop on
Textile Waste

Building a stronger, more resilient textile economy

Circular Textile Alliance (CTA) is an independent nonprofit organization working to strengthen the textile economy through education, research, collaboration, and practical implementation.

Textiles touch every person, every community, and every economy. Yet the textile system is complex. Every product reflects decisions about materials, manufacturing, labor, transportation, retail, consumer use, recovery, and end-of-life management. Consumers typically experience only a small part of that system, while the people and organizations within the industry experience its complexity every day.

CTA exists to help bridge the gap between people and the textile industry.

We bring together consumers, manufacturers, brands, retailers, researchers, educators, policymakers, nonprofit organizations, innovators, and other stakeholders to improve understanding, strengthen collaboration, and advance practical solutions.

Our Mission

To bridge the gap between people and the textile industry by advancing solutions through education, collaboration, research, and practical implementation that strengthen a transparent, resilient, and circular textile economy.

Our Vision

A future where every textile is valued as a resource, every participant understands their role in the system, and innovation, transparency, and responsible production create lasting economic, environmental, and social value.

Who We Are

A Coalition Built on Shared Purpose

Founded in 2025, the Circular Textile Alliance is an independent, non-profit industry body dedicated to transforming how the world produces, uses, and recirculates textile materials.

What We Do

Our role is to create connection, understanding, and practical pathways for progress across the textile economy. CTA serves as:

  • An educational resource
  • A research organization
  • An industry convener
  • A collaborative partner
  • A public benefit organization
  • An implementation partner

Our Approach

How We Work

01

Education Before Advocacy

We believe informed decisions create stronger products, stronger markets, and stronger outcomes. CTA provides objective education that improves understanding and supports informed decision-making throughout the textile value chain.

02

Collaboration Over Competition

The textile industry's most significant challenges cannot be solved by any single organization or sector. We serve as a neutral convener, bringing together diverse perspectives to pursue shared solutions.

03

Transparency Builds Trust

Reliable information strengthens consumer confidence, improves decision-making, and encourages responsible innovation. We support greater transparency through education, research, and practical implementation.

04

Innovation With Purpose

We support technologies, practices, and research that create measurable public benefit while strengthening economic resilience and improving environmental and social outcomes.

05

Responsible Markets

We believe consumers deserve products produced through fair working conditions, with transparency, quality, and affordability. Long-term economic success should be built through innovation, responsible production, informed consumer choice, and market systems that do not shift environmental or social costs onto workers, communities, or future generations.

Contribute To Our Mission & Work

This is a community led effort and every bit helps our drive to help lead the way in textile circularity become a reality. Join in!

Donate via Givebutter

Programs

Where We Direct Our Collective Effort

Turning Knowledge Into Action

CTA's programs are designed to improve understanding, connect stakeholders, support practical implementation, and strengthen the systems needed for a more resilient and circular textile economy.

Our work focuses on seven interconnected areas.

Consumer Education

The textile economy begins and ends with people. Yet consumers often have limited visibility into how textiles are designed, manufactured, marketed, used, recovered, and returned to productive use.

Our work may include:

  • Educational resources on textile materials, manufacturing, use, care, repair, reuse, recovery, and end-of-life pathways
  • Public awareness campaigns
  • Educational events and workshops
  • Resources that support informed purchasing and use decisions
  • Tools that make complex textile information more accessible

Our goal is not to tell consumers what to buy. Our goal is to help people make informed decisions.

Research & Innovation

A stronger textile economy requires reliable information, independent research, and practical innovation.

Our work may include:

  • Industry research
  • Technical guidance
  • Market and system analysis
  • Research partnerships
  • Demonstration projects
  • Innovation pilots
  • Public reports and educational publications

We are particularly interested in research and innovation that can move promising ideas toward practical implementation.

Industry Collaboration

Textile circularity requires collaboration across the value chain. CTA creates opportunities for manufacturers, brands, retailers, collectors, sorters, recyclers, technology providers, researchers, educators, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and community organizations to work together.

Our work may include:

  • Build stronger relationships across the textile value chain
  • Improve understanding of system interdependencies
  • Identify common barriers
  • Share knowledge and experience
  • Develop collaborative initiatives
  • Advance practical solutions

Our role is to create productive connections where collaboration can accomplish more than any organization can accomplish alone.

Policy Implementation

As textile legislation and industry requirements continue to evolve, implementation will require education, coordination, and practical solutions.

Our work may include:

  • Education
  • Technical guidance
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Collaborative problem-solving
  • Knowledge-sharing
  • Practical implementation support

CTA is not a lobbying organization. Our role is to help stakeholders understand changing requirements and collaborate on practical approaches to implementation.

Manufacturing & Workforce Development

A resilient textile economy depends on strong manufacturing capability and a prepared workforce.

Our work may include:

  • Domestic manufacturing
  • Workforce development
  • Skills and training
  • Industry and academic partnerships
  • Career pathways
  • Knowledge transfer
  • Manufacturing innovation

We believe a circular textile economy should strengthen economic opportunity as well as environmental performance.

Transparency & Traceability

Understanding where textiles come from, how they are made, and what happens to them after use is essential to building trust and making informed decisions.

Our work may include:

  • Supply-chain understanding
  • Material information
  • Product transparency
  • Traceability education
  • Data and information sharing
  • Consumer access to meaningful information

Our goal is to help make complex systems more understandable and useful to the people who depend on them.

Stacks of cut red and white fabric pieces on a cutting-room table, with a worker bundling more at a bench behind.
A machinist's hands guiding textured white fabric and a cream binding tape under the presser foot of an industrial sewing machine.

Textile Recovery Infrastructure

A circular textile economy requires effective systems for collection, sorting, reuse, repair, recycling, and other recovery pathways.

CTA works with stakeholders to better understand and strengthen textile recovery systems through education, research, collaboration, and practical demonstration projects.

We seek to connect the organizations and people involved across the recovery ecosystem and support solutions that increase the productive use and recovery of textiles.

Hand-drawn diagram of the textile lifecycle. A linear path runs from virgin materials through design, materials manufacture, product production, sale and use to "all done". From there a recovery loop returns textiles to productive use: recover leads to swap or to recycle, and recycling feeds back into design. Disposal branches to compost or to landfill.

Members

A Network for Shared Progress

No single organization can transform the textile economy alone.

CTA brings together individuals and organizations from across the textile value chain who share an interest in education, research, collaboration, and practical solutions.

Our members help create a stronger network of knowledge, relationships, and collective capacity.

Who Can Participate

CTA welcomes participation from across the textile ecosystem, including:

  • Manufacturers
  • Workforce and industry professionals
  • Brands
  • Retailers
  • Academic institutions
  • Government agencies
  • Nonprofit organizations
  • Technology providers
  • Community organizations
  • Researchers and educators
  • Innovators and entrepreneurs
  • Consumers and other engaged stakeholders

Different perspectives are essential to meaningful progress. CTA's role is to create a space where stakeholders can learn from one another and work toward shared objectives.

Current Board Members

Executive Board

  • Kevin Ann Jordan, President
  • Carol Miltimore, Secretary
  • Richard Cepeda, Treasurer

Members

  • Alix Vasquez, Founder, Herderin Studio
  • Jaleh Factor, CEO, Lezat
  • Carol Miltimore, CEO, Seek Collective
  • Shobha Phillips, CEO, Proclaim
  • Jake Slayton, CEO, Goodwill Bakersfield
  • Kevin Ann Jordan, Project Management Consultant
  • Carley Brandau, CEO, Thread Odyssey

Advisory Members (Non-Voting)

  • Catherine Compitello, CEO, Plentiful / Supply Chain for Food & Fiber Systems
  • Richard Rojas, City Planning, California
  • John Bwarie, Made In LA, Social Impact / Engagement

Why Join CTA?

Connect

Build relationships with people and organizations working across the textile value chain.

Learn

Access educational resources, research, events, and opportunities to better understand the systems shaping the future of textiles.

Collaborate

Participate in conversations and initiatives designed to address shared challenges and advance practical solutions.

Contribute

Bring your knowledge, experience, and perspective to a growing network working to strengthen the textile economy.

Stay Engaged

Receive information about CTA programs, publications, events, research, and opportunities for participation.

Our Partnership Philosophy

We seek partnerships that contribute to the public benefit and advance shared objectives through collaboration, education, research, and practical implementation.

Potential partnerships are evaluated based on alignment with CTA's mission, values, and charitable purpose.

We believe collaboration is strongest when it is built on shared purpose, mutual respect, and a recognition that meaningful progress requires diverse perspectives.

Get Involved

Whether you represent a company, academic institution, nonprofit organization, government agency, community organization, or simply want to better understand the textile system, there is a place for you in the Circular Textile Alliance.

Together, we can build the knowledge, relationships, and practical capacity needed to create a more transparent, resilient, and circular textile economy.

Knowledge & Research

Reports & Publications

Full Library

Latest News

What’s Happening at CTA

All News

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