Episode 506: Circ: Mission to Recycle Global Fashion Waste
This Blue Cast episode, Tuncay Kilickan talks to Arshiya Lal, director of corporate development at Circ.
Circ is on a mission to power the clean closet with patented technology that recycles global fashion waste back into textiles, over and over again. Circ is protecting our planet by reducing the need and demand for petroleum, trees, and other materials harvested from nature to manufacture clothes. Circ is building a truly circular economy for the fashion industry. Headquartered in Danville, VA, a former epicenter of textile production in the United States, Circ is an Earthshot Prize Finalist, a Certified B Corporation revitalizing the future of material technology and manufacturing, and has been named in Fast Company’s list of World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024. To learn more about Circ, visit www.circ.earth.
Arshiya is helping create a more sustainable consumer future at Circ, where she works with brands and the textile supply chain to bring the first blended textile-to-textile recycling solution to market.
Arshiya Lal has spent her career leading product strategy and growth for global emerging technologies in the sustainability and traceability space. She is passionate about addressing non-renewable material inputs and supply chain fragmentation with technology solutions.
Before joining Circ in December 2022, Arshiya served as head of product at biotech company Modern Meadow, where she launched the start-up’s first lab-created leather products with renowned global fashion brands and informed the future roadmap of Modern Meadow’s BioMaterials business.
Before working in materials, Arshiya led the development of enterprise blockchain technology and executed key partnerships for IBM’s blockchain business – bringing transparency to fragmented supply chains.
Arshiya has worked on bespoke fashion technology projects including 3D-printed and cognitive clothing for Milan Fashion Week and Berlin Fashion Week, which sparked her interest in materials creation and fashion innovation. She holds expertise in bringing retail technologies to CPG companies – including augmented reality, virtual reality and gesture recognition. While in university, she founded and hosted the Atlanta Fashion Tech Summit, which brought together over 200 fashion enthusiasts & technologists to talk about fashion and retail innovation.
Arshiya currently resides in New York City, where she enjoys biking, running and aerial arts. She brings sustainable fashion to her personal life by committing to shopping secondhand and hosting clothing swaps.
Arshiya graduated with highest honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia where she studied Finance and Industrial Design.
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