Walmart Foundation grants US $ 1.2 million to US non-profits Goodwill Industries International and Accelerating Circularity to recycle unsellable textile donations and promote a circular economy.
The goal of the donation from the Walmart Foundation, the philanthropic organisation of the US retail chain Walmart, is to assist regional Goodwill organisations in acquiring the knowledge, tools, and infrastructure required to transform textile waste.
The money will be used by 25 neighbourhood organisations to develop post-consumer textile feedstock that complies with the exacting requirements of recyclers. The procedure of sorting and preparing feedstock will also be covered in training and education for staff employees.
According to the proposal, local groups including Goodwill Industries of Tenneva Area, Goodwill of the Finger Lakes, Goodwill of the Ontario Great Lakes, and Goodwill Industries of West Michigan will serve as its leaders.
Goodwill Industries International director of sustainability Brittany Dickinson expressed the organisation’s dedication to scalable, circular, and traceable textile solutions, “We see textile-to-textile recycling as a key pathway for donations that are unwearable and at their end of life.”
Regional textille collaboration centres are also being modelled and tested by local Goodwill organisations. These centres are anticipated to be reproduced throughout the vast Goodwill member network, serving as a model for other social companies looking to improve textile circularity.
