The finite material basis for human activities on Earth is under growing pressure. The unsustainable outcomes of the textile sector include resource overuse, accumulation of waste, largely uncontrolled emission release into the natural system and labour rights violations. There is broad consensus in academia and the industry itself regarding need to transform the textile system. Circular economy (CE) has recently been the most prominent strategy to target resource scarcity and environmental problems at the same time. CE is at the core of the Textiles Strategy within the EU's Green Deal Circular Economy Action Plan. It focusses on energy efficiency, reusability, recyclability and repairability of textile products. Despite its popularity and increasing implementation in the textile sector, CE is criticised as perpetuating the unsustainable status quo by fuelling the narrative of ecological modernisation. This research therefore investigates the contribution of CE reuse and recycling interventions to reduced material flows and overall sustainability in the textile sector from a comprehensive sustainability perspective by using systems thinking. In a first step, the systems-oriented concept map extension tool is used to explore and illustrate sustainability challenges in the multiscalar and deeply interconnected textile system. In a second step, recycling and reuse are critically assessed in terms of their potential contribution to (1) limited overall material throughput and (2) environmental, social and economic sustainability in the case of textiles. Our findings show that recycling and reuse as CE interventions are suited only to a limited extent to achieve the goal of reduced material flows if operating within traditional market dynamics and growth paradigms. Therefore, CE's most prominent interventions in the textile sector are not able, per se, to lead to a more sustainable textile sector. We offer four recommendations for practitioners, policy makers and scholars to redirect CE towards sustainability and invite for discussion: (1) reintroduce waste hierarchies with a clear prioritisation on overall reduction of all sources and forms of waste, (2) reduce material and products' complexity, (3) reframe a CE narrative for the textile sector and (4) apply a systems perspective to CE.

地球上人类活动的有限物质基础正承受越来越大的压力。纺织行业不可持续的结果包括资源过度使用、废物积累、在很大程度上不受控制的排放释放到自然系统和侵犯劳工权利。学术界和行业本身就纺织系统转型的必要性达成了广泛共识。循环经济 (CE) 最近已成为同时解决资源稀缺和环境问题的最突出战略。CE 是欧盟绿色交易循环经济行动计划中纺织品战略的核心。它专注于纺织产品的能源效率、可重复使用性、可回收性和可修复性。尽管它在纺织领域很受欢迎并且越来越多地实施，CE 被批评为通过推动生态现代化的叙述使不可持续的现状永久化。因此，本研究使用系统思维从全面的可持续性角度调查 CE 再利用和回收干预对减少纺织行业的材料流动和整体可持续性的贡献。第一步，使用面向系统的概念图扩展工具来探索和说明多尺度和深度互连的纺织系统中的可持续性挑战。第二步，对回收和再利用的潜在贡献（1）有限的整体材料吞吐量和（2）纺织品的环境、社会和经济可持续性进行严格评估。我们的研究结果表明，如果在传统的市场动态和增长范式内运作，回收和再利用作为 CE 干预措施仅在有限的程度上适合实现减少材料流动的目标。因此，CE 在纺织行业中最突出的干预措施本身并不能带来更可持续的纺织行业。我们为从业者、政策制定者和学者提供四项建议，将 CE 转向可持续性并邀请讨论：(1) 重新引入废物等级，明确优先考虑总体减少所有来源和形式的废物，(2) 减少材料和产品复杂性，(3) 重构纺织行业的 CE 叙述，以及 (4) 将系统视角应用于 CE。