Unlocking greater brand adoption of recycled cotton would be a great outcome for the Cotton Reloop Matrix Project being led by Fashion for Good


Cotton recycling: From scale-ready to reality


Cotton accounts for 19% of global fibre production, according to the Textile Exchange Materials Market Report 2025, accounting for a sizeable chunk of the materials used in textile markets. Textile- to-textile recycling of cotton fibre, though, is just in its infancy and clothing brands are only accepting recycled content in a limited way. Shredded cotton fabrics have tradi- tionally had a second life in low-value, non-clothing applications, such as padding and industrial cloths. Fashion for Good is aiming to change that situation with the Cotton Reloop Matrix Project, which it has launched to unlock commercial scale for recycled cotton fibre and yarn for use by clothing brands. The organisation says the Cotton Reloop


Matrix Project is a cross-industry initiative that will map and physically validate the quality of current commercially available recycled cotton yarns against brand specifications, giving the industry a data-backed overview of how quality, price, and recycled content intersect. Fashion for Good’s partners in the project are Arvind, Bestseller, C&A, Interloop, Reformation, and Shahi, plus fibre and yarn testing technology company Uster.


24 Textiles Loop • Autumn 2026 In mechanical recycling processes,


textile waste is shredded and re-opened into loose fibres so that these can be respun into yarn. The problem, though, is that shredding shortens and weakens the fibres, and only 45 to 50% of the input survives as useable material, says Fashion for Good (using data from a 2025 study published in Journal of Natural Fibers). The rest of the input is lost as short fibres and processing waste. The useable recycled fibres are shorter than virgin cotton fibres, so spinners can only blend a limited share back into new yarn. In practice, that caps most yarns at around 10% recycled content, it says, because any higher content would mean the fabric is not durable enough for commercial use.


Quality and price “Recycled cotton isn’t new to us: it’s a fibre we’ve worked with for years,” said Nikki Player, Senior Director of Raw Materials at Reformation. “What’s been limiting is the ability to scale to higher blend percentages without compromising fabric quality or hand-feel. What this project offers is a shared reference point where brands and recyclers work from the same evidence. We


hope this opens the door to greater scalability and uptake over time.” Recyclers report that they have idle


capacity, says Fashion for Good, but brands’ adoption of yarns with recycled cotton remains limited because of their concerns over inconsistent material quality, fibre length and price premiums. “Integrating a meaningful percentage of


recycled cotton remains complex for brands navigating trade-offs around quality and price,” said Fashion for Good. “Testing happens in isolation, with recyclers and brands working from separate data sets, and no shared reference comparison to close the gap between them. Alongside this, brands often evaluate recycled blends against 100% virgin cotton standards, which makes for a challenging comparison for recycled cotton.” The organisation says that to help


unlock greater market adoption, the industry must shift its focus from parity of recycled with virgin fibre to a fit-for-pur- pose approach. In this, the realistic performance profile of recycled fibres would be matched to appropriate product applications while utilising targeted quality augmentation pathways where higher


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