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Virginia Startup Circ Pioneers Circular Fashion With Breakthrough Recycling Technology

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

November 26, 2025

The Environmental Toll Of Fast Fashion

Fast fashion inflicts significant environmental damage, consuming vast amounts of water and generating high carbon emissions along with excessive pollution. The industry also contributes to a surge in microplastic contamination and textile waste, compelling brands and consumers alike to explore sustainable alternatives such as thrifting.

Innovative Technology Driving Textile Recycling

Despite fast fashion’s impact, less than 1% of clothing finds its way back into production, primarily because modern fabrics are complex blends that require complete fiber separation to be remade. Circ, a Virginia-based startup founded in 2011, is tackling this challenge head-on with its advanced hydrothermal technology. This process disassembles polycotton blends—accounting for 77% of the global textile market—by breaking them down into their original polyester and cotton components. As CEO Peter Majeranowski explains, “It’s a chemical process, very much like unbaking a cake, where we break down the polyester to its building blocks, separate it from the cotton, and put them back into the very beginning of the supply chain to be remade into new clothes.”

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Strategic Partnerships And Industry Impact

Companies such as Allbirds, Zara, and H&M have already integrated Circ-recycled textiles into select product lines, despite a slight price premium. Esteemed brands known for their commitment to sustainability, including Patagonia—which is also an investor in Circ—recognize the importance of scaling innovative recycling processes to drive systemic change.

Scaling Sustainable Practices Globally

Matthew Dwyer, Vice President of Global Product Footprint at Patagonia, underscores that the higher cost of recycled materials is a necessary investment in breakthrough technology that can ultimately reduce environmental impact at scale. With $100 million raised from notable investors such as Patagonia, Temasek, Taranis, Marubeni, Inditex, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Circ is well-positioned to transform the textile recycling landscape. Headquartered in Danville, Virginia—once home to the largest textile mill in the U.S.—the company is expanding its reach with its first industrial-scale textile-to-textile recycling plant in France.

A New Era For Circular Fashion

Circ’s pioneering approach signals a significant step toward a circular economy in fashion, where sustainability, innovation, and profitability converge to reshape an industry in dire need of reform. As traditional recycling methods have fallen short, Circ’s model offers a promising pathway for transforming waste into a valuable resource, ensuring that the industry not only addresses its environmental footprint but also sets a precedent for future sustainability initiatives.

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Women Make Up A Majority Of The EU’s Science And Technology Workforce But The Real Gap Is Elsewhere

by News Editor

June 25, 2026

Women now make up the majority of the EU’s science and technology workforce. According to Eurostat, in 2025, more than 81.6 million people aged 15 to 74 were employed in science and technology occupations across the EU. Of those, 52.5% were women, equal to 42.8 million women. The number of women in these occupations rose by 27.9% compared with 2015, an increase of more than 9.3 million over a decade.

On the surface, the numbers resemble progress. However, Eurostat’s category requires context before that figure can be read accurately. The data refers to HRST, or Human Resources in Science and Technology, specifically people employed in science and technology occupations. These are roles where the main tasks require professional or technical knowledge in physical and life sciences, but also in social sciences and humanities. That definition is wider and broader than engineering, ICT, laboratory science, or high-tech research alone.

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Zooming In

The gender picture changes once the data moves from a wider definition of the workforce to the narrower scientist-and-engineer (research and manufacturing) subgroup.

Scientists and engineers represented almost a quarter of all people employed in science and technology in the EU in 2025. Eurostat describes scientists and engineers as often being the innovators at the centre of technology-led development, making them an important subgroup to focus on separately.

Women accounted for only 40.8% of scientists and engineers in 2025, despite making up more than half of the wider category. That share has increased by a mere 0.5 percentage points over the past decade. The absolute number of women working as scientists and engineers rose from 5.3 million in 2015 to 8.2 million in 2025, despite the push from national and international organisations to increase the number of women in the field. Europe has expanded the number of women in science and technology occupations over ten years. However, that expansion has not extended equally into the scientist-and-engineer subgroup, where much of Europe’s research and innovation work is conducted.

In 2025, of the 39.4 million women aged 25 to 64 working in science and technology occupations in the EU, 35.5 million worked in service activities. Only 2.7 million worked in manufacturing. Women accounted for 57.5% of science and technology employment in services, but only 31.3% in manufacturing.

In 2025, the highest shares of women employed in science and technology occupations were recorded in Latvia at 62.4%, followed by Hungary’s Great Plain and North region at 61.1%, Estonia at 60.5%, Poland’s Central macroregion at 60.4%, and Lithuania at 60.3%. No EU country recorded a majority of women among science and technology workers in manufacturing.

Break-down

Eurostat’s figures measure employment in broad science and technology occupations. They do not show job security, pay levels, management roles, promotion rates, research leadership, or whether women are concentrated in junior or senior workplace positions.

The classification of “senior” also requires additional explanation. Eurostat reports that 45.9% of science and technology workers aged 25 to 64 in the EU were classified as “senior” HRST in 2025. In this dataset, “senior” refers to workers aged 45 to 64. It does not mean senior manager, senior researcher, team lead, or decision-maker.

A high female share in the wider Human Resource Science and Technology (HRST) category does not parallel equal representation across scientists, engineers, manufacturing roles, senior posts, pay, research funding, or decision-making. These figures also reflect the occupational mix inside each country or region, not only structural progress across all areas of science and technology.

The Case Of Cyprus

Eurostat data places Cyprus’s overall science and technology employment at 37.2% of the labour force in 2025, slightly above the EU-27 figure of 36.9%, and above Greece at 26.8%, Malta at 33.9%, and Turkey at 18.2%. This figure covers the total share of the labour force employed in science and technology across all genders.

Progress Or Work-in-Progress?

52.5% in the broad category. 40.8% among scientists and engineers. 31.3% in manufacturing. Europe’s gender gap in science and technology hasn’t closed yet, and there is still work to be done to encourage and support more women to enter the field, especially in research and manufacturing.

Let’s not wait another decade for another couple of percentage points of hope.