Circularity is fast becoming fashion’s go-to sustainability strategy. Brands are pledging to use recycled fibers, launch take-back schemes, promote repair, and extend product lifespans. In theory, these efforts could reduce waste, lower emissions, and shift the industry away from fast fashion’s linear, throwaway model.
But here’s the catch: none of this works unless we know who’s in the supply chain, what role they play, and whether they benefit from this shift.
We’ve already seen what happens when transparency is an afterthought. Traditional fashion supply chains were built without it — creating fragmented, opaque systems that still obscure responsibility and hinder progress. Circular supply chains are still in their early stages — and this is our opportunity to do better: to embed openness and accountability from the start.
In this context, open supply chain data isn’t just a ‘nice-to-have’ — it’s the foundation for knowing whether any circular system is truly fair, effective, and future-ready.
Supply Chain Transparency Is Foundational to Circularity
Circular fashion isn’t just about what goes into a product — it’s also about what happens after. Unlike linear supply chains, circular systems loop back through decentralized points: sorters, recyclers, remanufacturers, resale vendors, and more.
Yet most of these actors remain invisible.
- In Ghana and Kenya, secondhand textiles are sorted and sold by informal vendors.
- In India, women repair discarded garments in small units, often without contracts, safety gear, or stable pay.
- Even within Europe, resale and refurbishment work is outsourced to lower-cost regions where labor protections are weak.
If these players aren’t disclosed, how can brands ensure their circularity efforts are responsible — rather than pushing risks back into the shadows of the supply chain? How can civil society monitor risk or engage before harm occurs? And how can recyclers, sorters, and repair workers gain the visibility, investment, and protections they need to work with dignity?
Transparency isn’t just about compliance — it’s what helps make circularity credible, inclusive, and functional.
Circularity Is Expanding — And So Are the Risks
As circular supply chains grow, so do the number of actors and systems involved — from reverse logistics firms to resale platforms and recycling hubs. But with this growth comes fragmentation and new blind spots.
Unlike linear systems, circular models rely on multiple re-entry points, informal operators, third-party vendors, and cross-border flows of used and discarded goods. This added complexity makes it harder to know who’s responsible — and easier for accountability to fall through the cracks.
- Digital product passports are being tested to improve traceability, but once a garment is resold, repaired, or recycled by another party, it’s unclear who updates the data, who owns it, or whether it remains accurate.
- Textile waste is routinely shipped across borders as secondhand or recyclable goods — yet once it leaves the country of origin, visibility drops and brand responsibility often disappears.
- Resale platforms collect vast amounts of data on product lifecycles — but rarely gather information on wages or working conditions for workers involved in resale, repair, or sorting, and almost never make such data publicly available.
These aren’t just technical gaps — they’re governance gaps that fundamentally hinder the development of a functional and fair circular system. While resolving them will require long-term, multi-stakeholder efforts, the starting point is transparency: the creation of a shared, open map of the entire circular supply chain, inclusive of the often-overlooked actors who sustain its day-to-day functioning.
Transparency Unlocks Shared Responsibility and Data-Driven Action
Addressing these governance gaps in circular fashion will take more than isolated fixes — it will require coordination across an increasingly complex web of actors. Brands, recyclers, sorters, logistics providers, resale platforms, and informal workers all have a role to play. But without transparency, they will continue to operate in silos, leaving accountability fragmented and progress uneven.
Open data on these supply chains can create the common ground needed to bridge this fragmentation. It can help:
- Brands gain end-to-end visibility of their circular footprint — enabling more informed decisions and stronger alignment with their sustainability objectives.
- Governments design smarter due diligence and extended producer responsibility (EPR) policies based on actual supply chain data, not assumptions.
- Civil society and unions identify emerging risks, monitor social and environmental impacts, and engage meaningfully with the right actors to drive systemic change.
- Recyclers, repair centers, and informal operators gain legitimacy, visibility, and access to partnerships and protections.
Transparency thus turns a fragmented system into a shared one — enabling collaboration, clarifying responsibility, and making it possible to design circular systems that truly work for both people and the planet.
This Is Where Open Supply Hub Can Help
At Open Supply Hub (OS Hub), we’re working to support the kind of transparency that circular fashion needs — not just at the point of production, but across the full lifecycle of a product.
OS Hub is an open, collaborative platform where anyone — from brands and facilities to civil society groups and researchers — can contribute to and access supply chain data. Together, we can build a clearer picture of the circular supply chain and the actors involved.
You can use OS Hub to:
- Add facility data for circular actors you work with — such as repair centres, recyclers, remanufacturers, or sorters.
- Search and map facilities across sectors, countries, and stages of the circular supply chain.
- Collaborate on projects that make circular systems more visible, inclusive, and responsive to real-world challenges.
We see transparency as shared infrastructure — something we can build together to support circularity that works not just in theory, but in practice, and for everyone involved.
Circularity Must Be Transparent to Be Trusted
If we get circularity right, it could transform how fashion is made, consumed — and governed. If we get it wrong, it risks becoming just another buzzword, masking the same inequalities under a new name.
That’s why we must open data on these supply chains — not just to reveal what’s broken, but to enable what’s possible.
For circular fashion to work, it must serve the people who make it possible — and the planet we all share. Transparency is one step toward making that real.
Want to get involved?
Visit opensupplyhub.org to add your facility data, explore circular actors, or connect with our team. Let’s build a circular future — openly and together.
