Cotton Move: A circular solution for textile waste

It is hard to imagine a world without clothes.

Last decades the production of textiles doubled, as well as the generation of waste.

But the problem is that less than 1% of waste are recycled and becomes new products, which means that fashion is 99% linear.

And we cannot afford that, as well as the planet.

To solve this problem, Cotton Move were founded in 2018 aiming to capture the lost value from textile waste by transforming it into new products.

Basically, our plan is simple and has two phases: first, we will develop new clothes from industrial fabrics waste (we are actually in here); next, we will develop new fabrics and clothes from post-consumption waste.

For us, it is all about to build a closed-loop ecosystem for fashion industry.

In short, we have technology and expertise to recycling textile waste and produce new fabrics.

According to Ellen MacArthur Foundation, less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing. Considering that textile industry have been produced more and more clothes (doubled from 2010 to 2015), the planet will not be able to solve this issue.

To illustrate, Brazil is the fifth largest producer of textiles in the world, with more than 1.8 mi tons of articles made per year, of which 175 tons became waste and 90% of this ammount go to landfills.

A jeans, for example, consumes about 5,000 liters of water during its entire life. The majority part of this amount is consumed ebfore the use phase, which means that extending the product life could reduce significantly the environmental burden.

Also, Brazil faces a lot of social issues. Our business model for post-consumer clothing recovery will provide a job creation for the low-income population.

In summary, today's clothing system puts pressure on resources, pollutes the environment, and creates negative societal impacts.

Our solution impacts the whole society, especially whose lives nearby textile industry.

First, Cotton Move's solution recapture value for textile industry and magazine by offering sustainable and plastic-free fabrics.

Second, we are working close and impacting the whole fashion supply chain, since the cutting process, in which tons of fabric flaps are generated, until magazine clothing design process.

In this journey, we do not only deliver sustainable fabrics, but also we impact how decision maker across the textile industry produce clothing. It is not magic. We show that is possible to recover waste and transform then into new and fashion clothes.

Also, we plan to expand our business based on funding to promote social  even more benefits: from a sorting center, we will recover post consumer clothing, generating jobs for the low income population, while reducing the generation of waste and negative environmental burdens.

We recapture value from textile waste by producing new clothes. And the best, we do not use non-renewable raw materials and our products are plastic-free.

So, how it works?

First, we collect textile waste from manufacturing industry which is free from plastic and non-renewable sources. Then, our partner defibrates waste, transforming it on new fibers. In general, this process generates colored fibers and we use that to avoid dying - we keep the high value of fabrics and reduce impacts.

The next step depends of what we will produce and the desired quality of fabrics and clothes. In general, we add some new cotton fibers to lengthen the yarn fiber.

Next, we work together designers to develop beatiful and fashion garments, and based on that, a new fabric are produced. 

In our debut year, we were granted by Textile Exchange with the Global Recycled Standard - the first company in Latin America receive such standard.

In summary, we put together circular strategies, technology, expertise and R&D to develop and produce clothes from textile waste, reducing footprints and environmental impacts, waste generation and disposal, and recapturing value for business and society.

Also, we are planning to expand our solution to recover post consumer apparel by applying defibrillation and new fabrics production, reuse and upcycling strategies.

Our goal, to build a zero waste and fair fashion industry.

The innovation in our solution rest on how we develop new clothes from textile waste to offer circular products to fashion brands which are operating linearly.

We are changing the way textile industry and magazine design clothes, offering fabrics and clothes with top quality while we reduce waste generation, carbon emissions and use of non-renewable resources.

The mechanical recycling of textiles has been known for years, but its application on a large scale is still a challenge, which why we are innovative. We can apply it in a large scale according the waste typology of textile industry.

Also, we have adopted the best practices of circular design by avoiding the fibers blend from different sources, as well as the use of plastic fibers.

Our business model relies on a collaborative ecossystem which includes: fashion magazines, manufacturing industries, NGO's and society. We do not provide only a recycled product. We provide a circular economy business supported by a resilient ecossystem: magazines will support the post consume clothes collection; our partners and NGOs will be paid to separate clothes for the various purposes (upcycling, recycling, donation); our reverse supply chain will recycle and produce new clothes; associated designers will apply the upcycling of special parts; and clothes will be remarketed.

Why is is innovative?

Because it is circular by nature; it is fair and collaborative; and it is a zero-waste oriented business model.

The key secret of our business is the combination of process technology and R&D. In addition, our business model is scalable for two reasons:

• We can develop a sort of products from the recycling of cotton fabrics waste, and most important, we can deliver scale to the fashion industry;
• We have expertise to develop and replicate this process for other renewable fibers.

Mechanical recycling of clothes is not new. However, it is not an improved technology on an industrial scale. And we apply this technology in scale: we produce more than 10.000 gargements last year. And this is not even close to our maximum capacity.

Also, Cotton Move was the  first Latin America company to obtain the Global Recycled Standard, which means a lot.

The change to a circular fashion will only occur in scale.

Our solution has already been tested and validate in the market, once we produce high quality clothes for companies using their textile waste. In addition, the Textile Exchange standard comproves that Cotton Move deliver products made from waste.

How our solution address the problem?

1. By recycling and giving a new life for textile waste;
2. By recapturing lost value of fashion industry, once out closed loop process transform waste in new clothes;
3. By reducing waste generation of fashion indutry once it becomes fabrics again;
4. By reducing environmental impacts, such as global warming, water and resources scarcity, soil and water contamination;
5. By educating designer, manufacturers and magazines on how to apply circular economy in fashion industry.

Also, our next steps is to build a new and collaborative business model aiming to:

1. Create jobs for low-income population in post consumer clothing sorting centers;

2. Closing the entire loop for fashion industry, which means no textile waste for landfill.

For now we are serving only business (magazines and brands) in a pilot scale.

Our estimatives are that we attend 10000 people in Brazil.

Our goal is rapidly to scale and reach 100000 people impact in one year, and sell our products for 3 magazines and generate jobs to recover post consumer clothing.

In 5 years we are expecting to reach up to 1 mi people with our products and expand our market to South America.

The next year Cottom Move aiming to recycle post-use products.

For the next 5 years, our purpose is to create a new product line based on textile waste from cotton source in a circular loom. Also, we our goal is to double our production capacity. 

The main barriers that Cotton Move is facing are:

• Lack of funding to growth our solution;
• Lack of interest from magazines to invest and buy our products.

In order to overcome these barriers, our action plan is:

• Search investors interested on innovative and circular solutions
• Apply for calls (such as Solve MIT)
• Apply for funding innitiatives
• Launch a B2C business to sell recycled gargements and make a clear statement for magazines

Today, Cottom Move is working in partnership with 6 companies/startups, totaling 20 people.

Full-time staff: 1

Part-time staff: 890

Partners:

- Souza e Cambos

- Ease

- Upcycle

- University of Sao Paulo

- Fava Textil

- Retalhar

- Lop

First, we are the only LATAM company to receive Global Recycled Standard from Textile Exchange, which means a lot - we have high quality pattern in our processes and across the whole value chain. Work with waste it is not a easy task, specially when pattern is a product requirement.

Second, we are developing a strong and resilient ecossystem to build a post consume waste recovery business model. We already have the right partners on board, now we just need funding to implement and pivot it.

Our team and partners have skills which includes: textile industry expertise, recycling skills, circular economy experts, social skills.

CottonMove work in partnership with:

• Souza e Cambos
• Ease
• Upcycle
• University of Sao Paulo
• Retalhar
• Fava Textil
• Lop

The core value of Cotton Move is to promote a fashion for good. It is all about to transform the way we produce and use garments with social and environmental responsability.

Today's fashion industry is facing several barriers to promote a sustainable fashion. On the other hand, consumers do not find sustainable product options on the market.

In short, our revenue comes from textile industry and R&D projects in partnership with designers and magazines which are interesting in developing recycled-based garments.

We are searching for new markets, new business partners, funding and spread our solution around the world.

We believe that Solve can support us to growth our business and scale up our solution, since people and brands will hear about us and the benefits of our solution.

Today we have some partners such as Souza e Cambos, Ease, Upcycle and the Circular Economy Innovation Center from University of Sao Paulo.

Today we are searching for partners which could invest on our solution to scale up or to develop another products. For us, the best partner would be magazines that could put our products in store, showing them to market.