From December 16th to December 19th, ITC’s GTEX Project in Sri Lanka, funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), held a training-of-trainers session followed by a training workshop on Circular Economy Business Models for the Textile and Clothing Industry.
This workshop, attended by more than 60 participants, is designed to provide an in-depth introduction to textile circularity across two days. It begins by explaining the core concepts, principles, and components essential for designing for circularity in the textile and clothing industry. Next, it explores how to maximize the efficiency of reverse logistics in the fields of textile reuse and recycling, with a particular focus on textile value chains.
On the second day, the workshop takes a “deep dive” into the textile recycling value chain, examining the various technologies, procedures, and quality requirements to make textile recycling a valuable business prospect. Eventually, the workshop concludes with a look at textile recycling business models, discussing the main challenges to value creation for industry stakeholders.
Together, these insights equip companies as well as the T&C-related support ecosystem in Sri Lanka with a comprehensive understanding to implement circular business models, enabling them to navigate the textile industry’s shift toward sustainability and gaining a competitive edge on international markets. The workshop was preceded by an intensive 2-day training-of-trainers, attended by 19 Sri Lankan academics, textile industry professionals and government officials to scale knowledge and circular practices.
As a result, the skills required to teach the training workshop on Circular Economy Business Models for the Textile and Clothing Industry have been embedded within Sri Lanka, ensuring its perennity and setting the stage for several future sessions to be planned and implemented locally, throughout 2025 and beyond. GTEX Sri Lanka expects to train about 500 industries professional and T&C-students in 2025 on this new key aspect of the T&C value chain.
