Recycling Pre-Consumer Textile Waste: Why isn't it being scaled up?

Moving the needle: Creating the future together | Online Seminar 4 | Please find the recording under: "Web" (on the right-hand side)

This seminar will focus on recycling post-industrial (pre-consumer) textile waste in two production countries (Bangladesh and Cambodia).

We will hear from Global Fashion Agenda’s Circular Fashion Partnership and Reverse Resources, who along with other partners are attempting to accelerate the transition to a circular fashion industry in Bangladesh. We will also hear from HKRITA, whose Green Machine is being tested in a Cambodian feasibility study to see if the technology can be scaled up to deal with the level of waste generated in production facilities.

Speakers will discuss what has traditionally prevented recycling from scaling up, and how these new projects are seeking to overcome these persistent challenges.

SPEAKERS:

Ms. Holly Syrett, Impact Programmes & Sustainability Director, Global Fashion Agenda 

Holly joined Global Fashion Agenda as Senior Sustainability Manager in May 2020 to mobilise and guide the fashion industry to take bold action on sustainability by researching, project leading and writing new and existing GFA publications, commitments and reports such as the CEO Agenda. She brings 10 years of experience working on sustainability and transparency programmes in the fashion industry for both public and professional audiences. 

Mr. Edwin Keh, MH, Chief Executive Officer, The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel

Edwin was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2020 by the HKSAR for his research work during the pandemic. He was named the best of Top 50 Innovative Retail Leaders by Inside Retail Hong Kong in 2019, is on the Debrett’s Hong Kong 100 as one of the most influential people in Technology and Digital sector, and is a recipient of the Production and Operations Management Society’s Excellence in Production and Operations Management Practice Award. Edwin holds multiple IPs which have won global invention awards.

Ms. Ann Runnel, Founder & CEO, Reverse Resources

Ann has been researching eco-innovation in the textile industry since 2010 to understand how great sustainable innovations could be scaled up. With her background in economics, she is driven by the question of how the circular economy be set up profitably and efficiently on global scale. She is driven to see the slowed-down ethical, circular, and functional economy coming true, and has a versatile background from different areas of expertise, including finance & banking, statistics, IT development, voluntary work, start-up & business development, and eco-innovation in global textile industry.