With over 100 billion garments produced yearly and textile waste piling up in landfills all around the world, a circular economy for textiles is something we desperately need.
This is one thread we cannot afford to lose. And so, we wove our way to Explore Circularity Day 2026, hosted by the Recycling Council of Alberta, on March 18–19 at the Calgary Zoo. While there, we learned a lot from inspiring changemakers sewing a new pattern for textiles through innovative circular solutions.
Much to our excitement, we had the honour of connecting with some of these incredible innovators. Equally as kind as they are knowledgeable, determined, and circularity-minded, they agreed to hold virtual meetings with us and share their stories.
Read on for insights into circular textile innovations, how textile circularity makes the world better, and how everyone can get involved, featuring Alberta Innovates, Goodwill, PLAEX and Gear re-Store, and ZyloTex.
Some quotations have received minor edits for clarity.
Alberta Innovates
Alberta Innovates is a research and innovation agency that provides funding, advice, connections, applied research, and industrial testing facilities to help accelerate innovations that will benefit Alberta. With a focus on preparing the province for a digital, net-zero future, Alberta Innovates seeks to improve lives for generations to come and has helped support projects in the circular economy space.
Here is what Mehr Nikoo, Program Director – Aerospace, Defense, and Advanced Materials (ADAM) at Alberta Innovates, had to say:
“Alberta Innovates is a crown corporation and our funding comes from a ministry. We report to [the] technology and innovation ministry, and our mandate is to support technology advancement and commercialization. […] The division I’m part of is focused on projects. […] For me it’s about project[s] [that] can come from anywhere, as long as there are impacts to the province.
“I’m part of the aerospace defence and advanced materials [program]. I’ve been part of a lot of different groups and programs, but it’s been the same type of work about waste reduction and [the] circular economy. When we started looking at textiles, actually, it was in that context, because [it was] mostly the plastic in textile[s] that we were looking at recycling. The other part we have is bioindustry, and then we have also few projects there that are making bio fibres, for example, bio-based fibres.
“I’m a board member also with the RCA. A lot of conversations that I see are really focused on goodwill kind of activities or nonprofit or reuse, things like that, and there’s a lot of value and that’s the first step. But for us, it’s what’s beyond that, and to [what’s needed to] make [a] big impact, usually, is technology, because at the community scale [you need] to be able to use major technologies because the cost economy of scaling things. That is something that we see a lot of. And we don’t have strong textile recycling, but we use a lot of textiles.
“So what I’m doing is important. Some of my other colleagues might be completely focused on hydrogen or other areas, but I’m part of a waste program. And this is really new, it’s kind of emerging at this point, because we see the trend. There’s a lot of interesting conversation. When you work in different areas, you see very similar trends [even for] something that is new. People start putting different pieces of [the] puzzle together and then come to some solutions.
“A lot of problems are actually very similar when you start something. Just bringing different stakeholders to have a conversation together sometimes is the biggest challenge. And you know, some people think technology is [only] digital technology, but for us it’s beyond that: how technology can be an enabler to bring the cost down or do things better. Like for machine learning, using AI robotics, of course they are useful, but a lot of times also the core technology of advanced recycling or other type[s] of technologies.
“Because my background is chemical engineering, I always say process engineering is like the part you have to cook, you mix everything. It’s so easy to have some products, you have food and you eat. But how to design that? How much time you need, how much heat, what’s the pressure, what’s the yield of products, that’s what dictates your cost. At the end of the day, everything is about cost and money. Especially the area we are working on. It’s not like natural gas—you have to have natural gas to burn. Nobody has to recycle anything. So it has to be cost competitive.
“How to optimize your process, your design, have the right value chain in place, make sure your technology is working at the optimum scale. And then [you] also [have to apply this to] different products. If you make revenue only from one out of three and the other two are waste, then it doesn’t make sense. These are the kinds of details that we have to sort out.
“[In addressing these challenges], there is no failure. You always learn what works, what doesn’t work. […] I wouldn’t even call them failures because it’s research. It’s learning; that’s basically the exploration that you do.
“Having an environment that demands sustainability—[with] demand[s] from customers or big industries, brands [that] want to add to their sustainability report, or regulations [is] what incentivizes these kinds of activities. Still, cost matters. But at least if you have those kinds of incentives, maybe you can justify some of these activities. […] In Alberta, especially with the small province, small population, the climate that we have, cheap energy, a lot of times it’s way more challenging for any kind of cleantech projects or circular economy projects. That’s the reality, [but] there are also opportunities.
“At the end of the day, it’s [about] finding the right partners together, and to open borders. It’s okay if you’re having conversation with someone in Europe or find collaboration potentials, because they are way more advanced in certain areas—why not? We [can] use some of those learnings. I remember there was an interview on the radio two years ago, [where] someone from Germany was advocating for solar heat and PVs, and it was an interview with Alberta. Someone said, ‘But in Alberta it is very expensive.’ And she answered, ‘So we find the solutions, you use them. It’s okay. You use our technologies.’ And it’s okay. We support those. It doesn’t have to be technology that is born in Alberta; even if someone brings an adopted technology to the province, it’s in the context of the province.”
How can people support and connect with your innovation, and help contribute to textiles circularity?
“First we are always open to inquiries [from anyone]. I spend a lot of time direct[ing] people, especially from externals. We have been going through some changes, and it might not be that easy to navigate our process—as long as they have an idea. I’ve been asked ‘at what stage [do] we have to engage with our retainer for funding?’ and, for me, it’s as soon as you have an idea, at least to know what we are looking for, and we can share some of those experiences with people from other projects.
“We give them some points of what to look at, how to design, who’s the best collaborator for them. Sometimes I can even connect them with an industrial end user because that’s what applied research is about, to put the supply chain together. Who’s going to pay for your technology or product at some point? We only support the research part. But down the road when you move into commercialization, who’s going to support it?
“We get a lot of inquiries, a lot of people know us. We have a strong network. Sometimes we also connect them to different industries. Some people come to me not for funding, just for connections.
“I always say, do not think that you have to design your project to get funding. That’s not the goal. You have to design your project for success. If you can get funding to support your success, that’s the best. […] Money is not the only solution, because there are so many other things that can happen. Even if you have all the money, you might not be able to move forward. Thinking about all of that, all different perspectives and understanding the challenges, it’s a big part [of innovating for textile circularity], especially at the beginning. Then you prepare yourself for what’s down the road.”
Goodwill Industries of Alberta
Goodwill Industries of Alberta is a non-profit social enterprise focused on people, purpose, and planet. Its thrift stores, outlets, and donation centres support an ecosystem of reuse, make clothing and goods accessible, and provide meaningful employment to individuals with disabilities or other employment barriers.
We spoke with Mortimer Capriles, Director, Sustainability and Innovation, and Doug Roxburgh, Director of Brand Marketing at Goodwill Industries of Alberta. Here’s what they had to say:
Mortimer Capriles: “In Alberta, Goodwill is a leader when it comes to the reuse of textiles. We have our traditional thrift stores where we sell items. It’s a five-week rotation system. Two weeks full price, then the last three weeks, 50% off. If they don’t sell in the three different stores, then we have the outlet stores. And in the outlets, we sell textiles. Doesn’t matter the brand, doesn’t matter how they are, we sell them at a really low price. […] We don’t charge GST because we’re a non-profit registered charity and we sell only used items. It’s a really affordable price for clothing, and that’s an amazing way to keep textiles in the local economy.
“The community is embracing this concept. They’re buying more and more from the outlets, and that’s helping fuel the mission, that’s helping fuel sustainability. But at the same time, we’re helping the community to get access to clothes at a really affordable price in a time where everything in Canada is more expensive than ever before.
“The items that don’t sell in the outlet, we have been trying to keep in the reuse economy as much as we can. That means we are now providing clothes to hospitals in Edmonton and Calgary for people in [a] situation of homelessness [… and] to different partners in the community, […] to some vintage stores and other thrift stores in BC and Alberta.
“Items that we didn’t use in that aspect of the operation go to what we call Goodwill at Work. Goodwill at Work is a team that is fully composed of people with disabilities. […] They get full support from Goodwill with a job coach, a personal coach, and they are in charge of transforming textiles that [didn’t] sell in the outlet [and] were not used by our partnerships, [such as turning] towels into cleaning cloth[s]. We [then] sell [those] in our stores, in car washes, or in Habitat for Humanity stores. They transform t-shirts into rags that we sell to oil shops and mechanics in Alberta. That’s the downcycling aspect of the operation.
“Then we have the upcycling, where these team members sort clothes and use jeans—denim— and transform that into aprons and reusable bags. Beautiful creations, 100% made by people with disabilities in Edmonton and Calgary. […] These are all paid team members, they get benefits, even if they are part-time employees. So this is all about making a positive impact in Alberta from a social perspective as well. [We also] sell the[se creations] in our stores, to municipalities, or organizations that are looking for uniforms or for a corporate gift. We’re selling to different partners in the community or their non-profits. And it’s just an amazing way to keep these textiles out of the landfill.
“When it comes to actual textile-to-textile recycling, we have a partnership with a company called Sixone Labs that is based in Vancouver. We have been providing them with bales of textiles for them to conduct research, to analyze the fabric content of the textiles that we have in Goodwill, [and] at the same time transform those textiles, especially polyester, into plastic pellets that can be used for making new clothes.
“We also work with Goodwill International conducting a textile fabric audit. […] That was made so we could start working with potential textile recyclers, and we could let them know the type of fabric [that] would get donated the most, to understand the opportunities and challenges we face when it comes to recycling textiles. We’re [also] going to visit a few companies, like textile recyclers in India that are working on textile-to-textile recycling to assess the process they have in place.
“In Edmonton, we have people with disabilities repairing broken furniture. We train them on how to repair furniture. Once they’re deemed independent, we help them to find employment in the community.
“And we don’t just deal with textiles, that’s just like 50% of the operation. We recycle [crayons], paper, we recycle cardboard, plastics, metal, styrofoam, many other categories. Electronic waste right now is massive. We’re recycling a lot of electronics, appliances, and it all takes place here.”
Doug Roxburgh: “When furniture came in and we had people with disabilities repair the furniture, we had over 11,000 kilograms diverted from landfills just last year with that program. With the denim program, we had over 1,000 kilograms of denim diverted from landfills. So there’s numbers that back up some of the initiatives from an environmental standpoint.”
Mortimer Capriles: “We’re also selling textiles in bulk in the outlet stores so people can access a 1,000-pound bale of textiles for 25 cents per pound. That’s just another way to put more items in the local economy at an accessible price.”
How can people support and connect with your innovation, and help contribute to textiles circularity?
Mortimer Capriles: “The best way for people to support Goodwill is by shopping secondhand, reusing. […] That’s the best way to support the whole circular economy. Reuse should be top of mind for everyone looking to reduce their environmental footprint. Reuse is number one. And at Goodwill, we’re all about reuse, repair, and refurbishment. Shop[ping] secondhand [is] a good way to make a positive impact, not just in the environment, but also in the community.
“The other way is to donate to Goodwill. A lot of people might not be donating textiles right now. Research shows around 70% of textiles in Canada are going to the landfill, not being donated to charities. Around 10% of what is found in the garbage bins in municipalities around Canada is textiles in good shape that could be inserted into the reuse economy. The best way to support Goodwill is by making sure those items, like clothes [and] shoes, [are] donate[d].
“We want to partner with more municipalities to make sure we find convenient ways for people in the community to donate. […] The landfills are busy. Landfills are being filled with a lot of stuff that we know would be part of the reuse economy here in Alberta. So that’s the call to donate, to keep the items in reuse, in the local economy, as much as possible.
“In the case of Goodwill of Alberta, we have a sustainability action plan. We are working with Deloitte to make sure everything related to the supply chain of textiles is done in the most ethical way from an environmental and social perspective. […] And we’re working really hard to make Goodwill as sustainable as possible. […] And we’re fully transparent. We conduct daily waste audits. Right now, [we’re] diverting 87% from the landfill, so 13% of what we get donated [is] going to the landfill. And that’s in the annual report we post online every single year.”
PLAEX Building Systems & Gear re-Store
PLAEX Building Systems™ offers sustainable construction solutions through PLAEX-crete™, made from over 90% recycled waste, and its unique interlocking building system. Operating on a circular economy model, PLAEX aims to develop an innovative ecosystem that combines simple assembly and disassembly with durability, energy savings, and sustainability.
Gear re-Store is a third-party outdoor gear repair company with full North American coverage. Specializing in aftermarket repair, restoration, and Durable Water Repellency (DWR), Gear re-Store is on a mission to reduce the outdoor industry’s environmental impact and keep gear in circulation.
Here’s what Russell McPherson, VP of Business Development at PLAEX and Founder of Gear re-Store shared with us:
“PLAEX manufactures a product that combines difficult waste streams and makes them into building materials. The key objective of these building materials is to enable the fabrication of low-cost housing. PLAEX is helping to prevent certain hard-to-use waste streams or difficult waste streams from going into the landfill. Sustainability, absolutely. Circularity, absolutely. We calculate that the cost of building the shell of a house could drop by 15–30%. […] One of the key ingredients in the PLAEX building block is what we call waste aggregate—concrete, asphalt, brick, glass—[we] make it into affordable building products.
“[This can help] remote northern communities where they don’t have access to skilled labour and where they have a housing shortage. Ship the PLAEX bricks up to remote communities and have people actually put together the shell of a house. These bricks basically snap into place. We refer to it as adult Lego. And it’s really that easy. We just tap them into place with a rubber mallet.
“[On the textile side,] I owned a business in the outdoor industry, Gear re-Store. [It] repair[s] outdoor gear like Gore-Tex jackets and polyester [textiles]. So I thought, well, what if we took out some of the plastic from the PLAEX brick and inserted some end-of-life outdoor gear, which is polyester. And so they tested to see whether outdoor gear would return the same properties in the manufacturing process. It did. In fact, it probably actually strengthened the brick because of the fibres involved in the polyesters. So, we know technically we can make a brick that includes end-of-life outdoor gear, which is problematic gear.
“Some of it is made with nasty chemicals, which take hundreds of years to break down in landfill. There’s legislation that is coming to a jurisdiction near you. It’s already proposed or enacted in Europe [and] California, and it’ll be global before long. It’s EPR legislation that will prohibit outdoor brands from landfilling or incinerating their gear. So, they are looking for a solution. I want to be able to provide it to them. And I thought a rather interesting solution would be to take their end-of-life product, grind it up into the mix of the PLAEX bricks and make bricks that can be then used for affordable housing, if it works.
“Where we’re hung up right now is these nasty chemicals that are in some of that gear that’s currently out there in the marketplace. I will say that the outdoor industry has reacted to environmental pressure, and they are making more responsible gear now that doesn’t include these nasty chemicals. [… But] right now, I need to find a lab that can help me do 100 years of accelerated testing to make sure that the nasty chemicals that are in that gear that get incorporated into a PLAEX brick do not leech into the environment and cause carcinogens for the occupants of the residences that we construct. I think we’re probably going to be okay because the PLAEX brick is actually extraordinarily dense. It’s way more dense than a cinder block. What we need to do is find a lab that can help us simulate 100 years of rainfall exposure and UV exposure. That’s where I’m at today.”
How can people support and connect with your innovation, and help contribute to textiles circularity?
“Gear re-Store is looking to extend the life of outdoor gear. We do it almost exclusively today through repair. If you can fix something rather than throwing it out, you extend the life of gear. You consume fewer of the earth’s resources to build gear that needs to replace the stuff that you threw out. And obviously you’re reducing the impact on the environment [that’s made] by throwing out gear that is still serviceable. It can be repaired. Where Gear re-Store wants to get more involved is in upcycling and downcycling.
“[For] downcycling, I think our option, if we can make it work, is with PLAEX: grinding up outdoor gear and incorporating it into PLAEX product.
“The upcycling piece is something that we are pursuing as well. We’ve come across some technology that will enable us to economically trim outdoor gear. Remove zippers, buttons, snaps, draw cords, all the hardware that’s used, and all that would be left in the garment would be a bucket full of trim. Basically, you’re left with [maybe] 5% of the gear that would end up in landfill, but it’s all stuff that’s safe to landfill, [it’s not made with harmful chemicals]. Then what we would be left with is the garment pieces. We are hoping to combine this trimming technology with laser cutting of pattern pieces so that we could do economic upcycling, which is making new product out of old product, making handbags, totes, chest slings, that kind of stuff.
“And right now, the barrier to success in doing upcycling is the cost. […] If we can make the front-end of the process, the harvesting of usable panels, if we can take the labour component out of that by automating the process with equipment, we might have a winner. That’s something we’re exploring right now with people who developed that technology to trim and combine that with cutting pattern pieces. If we can cut out the harvesting, we might cut out as much as half of the labour component involved in upcycling.
“How could people help? […] PLAEX is looking for investment. It’s a startup company, pre-revenue. If somebody is interested in becoming part of that project, they can go [to] plaex.ca and there’s all kinds of links for people that might be interested in investing in the company. We are also looking for licences. PLAEX develops technology, and their model will be to license that technology globally.
“I think there’s opportunity for two or three operators in Alberta, two to four in BC. So, anybody who’s interested in taking out a PLAEX licence for a certain territory, we’d be happy to talk to them as well. If anyone wants to put together a business where they actually take waste polymers and waste aggregates and combine them into building products, talk to me. […] Aside from that, if anyone knows of a lab that they could connect me to, to do that testing.
“I think we need to prove out the idea, then we’ll be looking for customers, and then we’ll be looking for suppliers as well. We’ll be looking for all kinds of gear to come into us. It’s premature at this stage to invoke that part of the business plan because we still don’t know whether it’s going to work.”
ZyloTex
ZyloTex is creating high-performance, biodegradable fibres out of Canadian-grown hemp, using a closed-loop lyocell process that transforms agricultural waste into a valuable resource. Their mission is to build a local, regenerative textile industry and reduce the world’s reliance on cotton and synthetics.
This is what Lelia Lawson, Founder and CTO of ZyloTex, had to say:
“So what ZyloTex does is we take agricultural residues, focusing on hemp straw grown for oil seed and food crops, and then we take that straw that is now seen as a waste product, and we convert it through the lyocell process to create fibre that could be used in anything from non-wovens, wipes for example, to even the clothes we wear and everything in between.
“Lyocell fibres themselves are biodegradable, but they can actually be recycled into new lyocell fibres. And then another waste stream that we’re looking at, which is going to be down the line, is going to be looking at post-consumer cellulosic textiles. So, not only looking at recycling lyocell fibres back into the lyocell process, but looking at other cellulosic textiles like cotton that are currently being landfilled.
“We go through a pulping process. The pulping process breaks it down, and we end up with something that looks like really fancy paper. And then we take that paper, and we dissolve it in an organic solvent that is almost 100% recoverable. I think it’s 99.9% recoverable right now. And we transform it. […] But we can also create different dimensions of this fibre. We could increase the diameter of it to make it stronger and more of a monofilament. So this could be anything from the clothes we wear to nonwoven products like wipes. Think about filtration media, erosion control, landscape materials to even composites, for example, airplane fuselage, panelling, so there’s abundant applications.
“We’re working with Canadian farmers who are growing hemp. We have a joint development agreement with a company called Plantae Technologies, and they procure the straw directly from the farmer.”
How can people support and connect with your innovation, and help contribute to textiles circularity?
“Right now, we are very much a startup company. So we are looking for funding to accelerate our development of pulp for scale up, as well as for fibre development for sampling and future sales. In terms of help or support, it’s really just looking at alternative materials.
“I know we’re part of a community that’s really involved in circularity, that really wants to see sustainable alternatives to the current microplastic problem and our petroleum-based synthetic issue. And if we can help support that side of the story and really drive that—we do need circular options, we do need textiles that don’t contribute to the microplastic problem—then we can actually create a consortium that really believes in these types of materials. That will help to drive that bioeconomy.”
Knitting Inspiration Into Impact
Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who met with us and shared their stories. And thank you to everyone innovating in the circular economy space to stitch a new ending for textiles, protect the planet for generations to come, and make the world better.
Textile circularity is relevant to everyone. Businesses, changemakers, the general population, all of us. Textiles are a part of daily life for everyone, and the work you’re doing can help make all the difference in the world.
Want the world to know about your circular economy solutions? Sparx is here to help you connect with the community, grow your audience, and raise awareness. Contact us today for a free consultation.
