Tan Yin Ling

The co‑founder of Cloop on how her social enterprise is closing the loop on Singapore’s fashion waste

- Valerie Lim

In the bustling landscape of Singapore’s fashion industry, one social enterprise is turning the tide on textile waste: Cloop, a circular fashion venture co‑founded by Tan Yin Ling, a former shopaholic turned sustainability champion.

As a student pursuing her master’s in conservation biology at the University of Exeter, Tan ironically found herself caught in the web of fast fashion. She accumulated hundreds of clothing items annually, buying more than what she could wear. It was not until her return to Singapore and a transformative experience at Secondsguru’s zero waste boot camp that she recognised the environmental impact of her shopping habits.

Many may not know this, but Singapore lacks textile and leather recycling facilities, and thus exports such waste for recycling. According to the National Environment Agency, the country’s textile recycling rate was 2 per cent in 2023. Low figure aside, it is worth noting that this number was obtained based solely on the amount of such exports, which indicates how much of such waste has been redirected overseas, but does not guarantee actual recycling.