Support and funding

Zero Waste Scotland administered the Circular Textile Fund on behalf of the Scottish Government.  

The Circular Textiles Fund ran between June 2022 and March 2024, calling on organisations based in Scotland to come forward with innovative circular economy projects that could reduce textile consumption, increase reuse and reprocessing, reduce the environmental impact of textiles, and improve circular design of textiles to keep them in use for longer.  

The Circular Textile Fund received a lot of interest from the sector, and a high number of applications. However, only a small number of these were able to propose projects which fully met the fund’s criteria, the match funding condition and could be delivered within the fund’s timescales.   

To support applicants through the process communications materials were developed detailing what the fund was seeking to support in terms of circular innovation and weekly online drop-in sessions were arranged to provide a space for applicants to discuss the application process and ask questions before submitting.   

Successful stage 1 applicants were invited by the funding panel, made up of representatives from Zero Waste Scotland, Scottish Enterprise and UK Fashion and Textiles, to submit a stage 2 application and additional support was provided in the form of an organisational health check and support with their carbon calculations.  

Five projects were successful and offered funding however only three were in a position to either partially or fully draw down the funding.  

These were:

• Industrial Nature, for a project looking to create innovative new textiles products made with wool and hemp (£254,053)
• Seadyes, for a project looking to develop naturally sourced pigments for dying textiles that are extracted from algae (£35,287)
• Glencraft, for a project to develop luxury mattress rental for the hotel sector (£3,747)

The successful three projects drew down a total of £293,087.