This is a pivotal time for UK fashion and textiles. It is essential that the sector strengthens its sustainable competitiveness, needing a fundamental change driven by industrial research and development. With the need to improve the impact of the sector on people and planet, the UK is competing on an international stage. But the prize for those who get there first is two-fold. The winner will enjoy the social and environmental benefits, but also the economic benefit of being a world leader in the provision of circular fashion and textiles. Today, over 1 million tonnes of used textiles are generated annually in the UK. An estimated 1/3 are non-rewearable textiles (NRT) which are currently being lost through export, to be sorted in lower cost labour regions, or to landfill/incineration. The **ACT project** is focused on a solution to overcome these challenges and on achieving Materials Circularity for NRT so they are collected, sorted and processed into feedstock for existing and emerging recycling processes, keeping these resources in circulation. While Product Circularity is equally important, it's widely recognised that fibre to fibre (F2F) recycling is essential for Materials Circularity, replacing the use of virgin resources, and supporting the textile industry in reaching its climate positive targets. However, the used textile supply chain is not currently equipped to supply these facilities. F2F recycling processes exist at different stages of industrialisation and will scale from 2025 onwards, with operating capacities reaching over 50,000 tonnes per annum, per plant. For the UK to benefit economically, environmentally and socially, **the used textiles supply chain is need of radical innovation and advancement. The ACT project is not starting from scratch. Nascent variations of automated sorting approaches are coming to the market from around the globe, with most of the new innovations happening in Europe including in Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Spain, among others. This project will innovate, combine and advance existing and new supporting technologies to overcome the current market failure by bringing together the most relevant optical sorting technologies, robotics, conveyance and pre-processing techniques into an industrial scale process with development of an Automated Textile Sorting and Pre-processing facility (**ATSP**), solely for NRT of all types. In addition, the project will trial and integrate digital and circularity technologies and services which will be required by brands/retailers, including blockchain and transparency services, product passports and life cycle analyses for the ecosystem. The trials and learnings, from a circular systems perspective, will enable businesses to proactively prepare for new legislation. We envision the outcome from this project, and laying the foundations for a scaled ATSP facility, to unlock real commercial opportunities for all companies actively engaged in accelerating circular supply chains.

Our project will assess the feasibility of a fair and balanced industry-led extended producer responsibility (EPR) system that can drive the transition to circular economy in the UK fashion system. This requires a radical and innovative approach to market data collation, appropriate incentivisation to switch to circular options and appropriate disincentivisation of linear systems. The system must accommodate all supply chain players: designers, manufacturers, brands, retailers, retail platforms (including those that are for resale and rental of clothing), service providers (e.g. cleaning, alteration and repair), collectors of used clothing, sorters, merchants, recyclers and reprocessors. This project is uniquely innovative because all previous producer responsibility systems have been implemented by governments through traditional policy & regulatory mechanisms - for example WEEE, batteries, packaging, etc. Such approaches typically focused only on end of life and recycling, and cannot adopt to rapidly evolving markets. Some fashion brands are said to be releasing up to **_1,000 new product lines each day_**. The UK government recognises the challenges of implementing effective EPR in new areas. As a result, it has been hesitant to implement measures that might unfairly penalise those on low incomes or unintentionally distort the market. Our project will work with key design, manufacturing, retail, collection and recycling trade organisations to assess and test a feasible, data-led market-based EPR system that can be dynamic, flexible and adapt to the emergence of new technologies, retail systems and consumer behaviour. The output will deliver a proof of value model for the UK fashion & textiles sector but may also be replicable to other EPR markets including mattresses, tyres, carpets, etc.

The UK fashion and textile industry contributes \>£32bn pa to the UK economy, yet it is an industry facing significant challenges. Consumer demands on the industry -- from fast fashion at competitive prices to manufacturing of luxury, high quality products, there is a need to ensure sustainability and ethical practices as well as address the needs of multiple channels from high-street to on-line portals. Then COVID-19 disrupted manufacturing supply chains and retail, creating unsold inventory and placing financial pressure on many businesses. This has accelerated the need to do things differently; leveraging technology, changing key processes, redesigning supply chains; to build back better with more sustainable, less wasteful and more cost effective processes, that better match customers needs with the right products, and supporting all manufacturing suppliers, logistics organisations and raw materials producers, to grow. Such capability would make the UK industry a true global leader. This project will build out a new industry digital platform that directly address these issues. It will allow manufacturers and retailers to meet emerging customer needs, more effectively managing day-to-day business delivery and global supply chains, infusing the system with more insight and transparency, using new digital technology to map organisations businesses and help them re-balance supply and demand using a new prototype set of digital tools. These same digital tools will enable us to address the long-standing environmental and social impacts of the Industry, transforming UK Fashion & Textiles into one of the most sustainable and resilient eco-systems in the world, strengthening the UK's competitive position and accelerating economic growth. Finally, the approach will also help to 'future proof' delivery, enabling issues such as the demands of Brexit to be managed as part of the solution. The defined framework will allow any size of UKFT business to participate, improving overall industry competitiveness and resilience. The project consortia has been brought together by the Future Fashion Factory Programme, one of nine ISCF-funded Creative Industries Cluster Programmes.