As the United Arab Emirates (UAE) accelerates its shift towards a circular economycircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature., the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is working to co-design and deliver a national textiles circularity policy framework as part of the country’s wider Naseej initiative, a Presidential-level programme to create a circular economy for fashion and textiles.
Naseej aims to move the sector beyond linear consumption and disposal toward an integrated model that preserves resources, captures economic value, and aligns its sustainability goals with long-term national development.
In this phase of our strategy, the Foundation is focused on real-world implementation. This includes engaging more directly with projects on the ground across our three missions — plastics and packaging, critical minerals, and fashion and textiles — that create learnings to help scale circular economy solutions.
Our collaboration with the UAE, where we will identify policy instruments to support circular economy outcomes, is an example of this approach.
The Foundation brings directly relevant global experience to this collaboration, including a central role in shaping the EU Textile Strategy and EPR design across multiple jurisdictions. We will now bring this expertise to the Gulf context, as well as the expertise of our Network, surfacing insights on the opportunities and challenges of circular implementation in the fashion and textiles industry in the UAE and beyond.
Jocelyn Bleriot, Policy and Institutions Executive Lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, said: “The UAE occupies an important place in global textile flows, notably as a re-export and trade hub. Such a position offers a significant opportunity to put the country's circular economy ambitions into practice. A successful policy framework in the UAE has the potential to serve as a replicable model for other countries in the Gulf and the wider Global South, where circular economy policy potential for textiles remains untapped.”
