Photo by lucalocatelliphoto / A worker untangles freshly recycled wool in Prato, Italy. Wool is the most common and successfully recycled textile worldwide—in Prato, this industry is a historic tradition. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, of the 100 million tonnes of textile waste produced every year, only 1% is recycled. Since the early 1900s, this small Tuscan town sorts and repurposes over 15% of the world’s textiles that entered the recycling loop. What was considered a discarded item is today a commodity and a symbol for sustainable industrial production. Prato and its recycling industry were the subject of National Geographic magazine's March issue cover story on "The End of Trash"—circular economy solutions. By designing waste out of the production system, circularity aims to keep resources and materials in use while regenerating natural systems. While the circular economy is promising, the truth is there isn't one single solution. Yet each one of us can make a bi...