Interview: Practitioners on Textile waste & fashion circularity — what they wish they knew earlier

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that less than 1% of material used to produce clothing globally is recycled into new clothing, representing a loss of more than $500 billion in value each year (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2024). Behind that statistic are thousands of practitioners across Europe and beyond working to close the loop on textile waste: sorting operators building fiber-to-fiber recycling lines, brand sustainability leads redesigning product portfolios, and circular economy consultants navigating the gap between corporate pledges and operational reality. Their experiences reveal patterns that no policy document or market report can capture. Here is what they wish they had known before they started.

Why It Matters

Europe generates approximately 5.8 million tonnes of textile waste annually, with an average of 11 kilograms per person discarded each year. The EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, adopted in 2022 and reinforced by the 2024 Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), mandates separate collection of textiles across all EU member states as of January 2025. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes for textiles are being introduced in France (already operational through Re_fashion), the Netherlands, and Sweden, with at least 15 additional member states in various stages of legislative preparation (European Commission, 2025).

These regulatory shifts are creating urgent demand for infrastructure, technology, and talent that the sector does not yet have at scale. Practitioners on the front lines describe a landscape where ambition outpaces capability, where material science challenges are underestimated, and where collaboration across the value chain remains the exception rather than the norm. Their insights are directly relevant for product and design teams evaluating circularity strategies, sourcing recycled content, or preparing for compliance obligations under the ESPR and forthcoming Digital Product Passport requirements.

Key Concepts

Understanding the practitioner perspective requires familiarity with several interconnected concepts:

Fiber-to-fiber recycling refers to processes that convert post-consumer textile waste back into fibers suitable for new textile production, as opposed to downcycling into insulation, rags, or industrial wipes. Mechanical recycling shreds garments and re-spins fibers, but degrades fiber length and quality with each cycle. Chemical recycling dissolves fibers (typically cotton cellulose or polyester PET) and regenerates them, preserving quality but at higher cost and energy intensity.

Textile sorting is the process of categorizing collected garments by fiber composition, color, and condition. Manual sorting by experienced workers can process 60 to 100 kilograms per hour with 85 to 90% accuracy. Automated near-infrared (NIR) sorting systems from companies such as TOMRA, Pellenc ST, and Valvan Baling Systems can achieve throughput of 1,000 to 3,000 kilograms per hour with fiber identification accuracy of 90 to 95% for mono-material garments (Fibersort Consortium, 2024).

Design for circularity encompasses product design decisions that facilitate end-of-life recovery: mono-material construction, avoidance of blended fibers, removable trims and hardware, and use of non-toxic dyes. The ISO 14021 and emerging ISO/CD 59020 standards provide frameworks, but practitioners report that practical implementation requires trade-offs with aesthetics, durability, and cost that standards documents do not address.

What's Working

Several approaches have demonstrated measurable results in European textile circularity operations.

France's EPR scheme for textiles, operated by Re_fashion (formerly Eco-TLC), collected 248,000 tonnes of post-consumer textiles in 2024, achieving a 36% collection rate against textiles placed on the market. The scheme funds 65 sorting centers across France and has channeled more than EUR 100 million into sorting infrastructure and recycling R&D since its inception in 2008. Practitioners credit the scheme's eco-modulation mechanism, which adjusts producer fees based on product durability and recyclability, with driving measurable improvements in design decisions at brands including Decathlon and Kiabi (Re_fashion, 2025).

Renewcell's Circulose technology demonstrated commercial-scale chemical recycling of cotton-rich textiles at its Sundsvall, Sweden plant before financial difficulties forced restructuring in early 2024. Despite the company's challenges, practitioners note that the technology itself proved viable at 60,000 tonnes per year capacity, producing dissolving pulp from post-consumer cotton waste that brands including H&M, Levi's, and Zara used in commercial collections. The lesson practitioners emphasize: the technology worked, but the economics required feedstock prices, offtake agreements, and capital structures that the market had not yet matured enough to support.

SOEX Group's automated sorting facility in Wolfen, Germany processes 400 tonnes of collected textiles daily using a combination of NIR spectroscopy and AI-driven classification. The system achieves 92% fiber identification accuracy on mono-material garments and routes materials into 60 distinct output categories. Practitioners familiar with the operation highlight that the system's effectiveness depends on upstream collection quality: contamination rates above 15% (non-textile items, heavily soiled garments, or wet materials) significantly degrade throughput and accuracy.

What's Not Working

Practitioners consistently identify several persistent barriers.

Blended fabrics remain largely unrecyclable at scale. An estimated 60 to 70% of garments on the European market contain blended fibers, most commonly polyester-cotton and polyester-elastane combinations. No commercially proven technology currently separates blended fibers at the volumes or economics needed for mainstream recycling. Worn Again Technologies in the UK and Circ in the US are developing chemical separation processes, but practitioners report that pilot-scale outputs remain 5 to 10 times more expensive than virgin fiber equivalents. Product and design teams are urged to treat mono-material construction as a non-negotiable design requirement for any circularity claim.

Collection infrastructure is fragmented and inconsistent. While the EU mandates separate textile collection from January 2025, practitioners describe wide variation in implementation quality across member states. In some municipalities, textiles are co-collected with household waste, arriving at sorting centers contaminated and degraded. In others, collection containers are poorly maintained, allowing water ingress that ruins otherwise recoverable garments. A 2025 survey by the European Clothing Action Plan found that only 38% of collected textiles in Europe arrive at sorting centers in condition suitable for reuse or recycling, down from 45% five years earlier as fast fashion accelerates quality decline in discarded garments (ECAP, 2025).

Digital Product Passports face data integrity challenges. The ESPR requires Digital Product Passports (DPPs) for textiles, carrying information on fiber composition, chemical treatments, and recycling instructions. Practitioners working on pilot implementations report that the supply chain data underlying DPPs is often unreliable. Fiber composition labels on garments are inaccurate 10 to 30% of the time, according to NIR verification studies conducted by the Fibersort Consortium. Without accurate input data, DPPs risk becoming compliance artifacts rather than functional tools for sorting and recycling operations.

Key Players

Established Companies

• Re_fashion (France): Operates France's textile EPR scheme, managing collection, sorting, and recycling fund allocation across 65 centers nationwide
• SOEX Group (Germany): Europe's largest textile sorting and recycling operator, processing 400 tonnes daily across multiple facilities
• Lenzing Group (Austria): Produces TENCEL and REFIBRA branded lyocell fibers incorporating post-consumer cotton waste in closed-loop manufacturing
• Decathlon (France): Implementing design-for-circularity guidelines across its product portfolio with measurable recycled content targets

Startups

• Worn Again Technologies (UK): Developing polyester-cotton separation technology using a solvent-based process at pilot scale in Nottingham
• Circ (US): Chemical recycling platform that separates polycotton blends, with pilot facility operational and commercial partnerships with Zara and Patagonia
• Syre (Sweden): Founded by former Renewcell leadership, pursuing textile-to-textile polyester recycling at scale
• Refiberd (US): AI-powered textile sorting and identification using hyperspectral imaging with sub-second fiber composition analysis

Investors and Funders

• H&M Foundation: Funded over EUR 10 million in textile recycling innovation through the Global Change Award and Planet First partnerships
• Fashion for Good: Amsterdam-based innovation platform backed by Adidas, Kering, and Target, investing in circular textile technologies
• European Investment Bank: Provided EUR 50 million in green financing for textile recycling infrastructure across the EU

Action Checklist

• Audit current product portfolio for blended fiber content and establish mono-material targets for new product development
• Map fiber composition accuracy across suppliers using NIR verification on incoming materials, targeting <5% label discrepancy rate
• Engage with relevant national EPR scheme operators (Re_fashion in France, forthcoming schemes in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany) to understand fee structures and eco-modulation incentives
• Begin Digital Product Passport pilot on a limited product range to identify data gaps and supply chain information flows before full ESPR compliance deadlines
• Establish take-back or collection partnerships with at least one certified textile sorting operator to build operational understanding of post-consumer material quality
• Evaluate chemical recycling offtake agreements for cotton-rich mono-material waste streams, benchmarking pricing against virgin fiber alternatives
• Train design teams on circularity constraints: removable trims, mono-material construction, non-toxic dye systems, and standardized fiber labeling
• Set internal recycled content targets aligned with or exceeding upcoming ESPR minimum thresholds (expected 25 to 50% by 2030 depending on product category)

FAQ

Q: What is the biggest mistake product teams make when starting a textile circularity program? A: Practitioners unanimously cite underestimating the importance of material composition decisions at the design stage. Teams that focus on collection and recycling programs without first addressing blended fabrics, non-removable hardware, and chemical finishes discover that 50 to 70% of their products are fundamentally incompatible with existing recycling infrastructure. Starting with design-for-circularity guidelines and mono-material targets delivers far greater impact per euro invested than downstream recycling investment alone.

Q: How reliable are recycled content claims in the European market today? A: Reliability varies significantly by fiber type and certification. Mechanically recycled polyester (primarily from PET bottles rather than textiles) has well-established chain of custody through Global Recycled Standard (GRS) and Recycled Claim Standard (RCS) certifications. Recycled cotton claims are less reliable because post-industrial cotton waste (cutting scraps) is frequently conflated with post-consumer recycled cotton, which has different environmental and circularity implications. Practitioners recommend specifying post-consumer recycled content explicitly and requiring GRS or RCS certification with transaction certificates for every shipment.

Q: What throughput and accuracy should we expect from automated textile sorting? A: Current commercial NIR sorting systems achieve 90 to 95% fiber identification accuracy on mono-material garments at throughputs of 1,000 to 3,000 kilograms per hour. Accuracy drops to 70 to 80% on blended fabrics, where NIR identifies the dominant fiber but cannot reliably determine blend ratios. Hyperspectral imaging systems under development by startups including Refiberd and TOMRA's next-generation platforms aim to improve blend identification, but these are not yet available at commercial scale. For planning purposes, assume 85% average accuracy across mixed feedstock and budget for 10 to 15% of sorted material requiring manual verification.

Q: How will EPR schemes change the cost structure for textile brands in Europe? A: France's Re_fashion scheme currently charges producers EUR 0.004 to EUR 0.068 per unit placed on the market, with eco-modulation that penalizes non-recyclable designs and rewards durability. As EPR schemes expand across Europe, practitioners estimate that fees will add EUR 0.05 to EUR 0.15 per garment on average, with eco-modulation creating differentials of up to 50% between best-in-class and worst-in-class products. Brands that invest in design for circularity now will face materially lower EPR costs than competitors that defer action. The total cost of EPR compliance across a European portfolio is expected to reach EUR 5 to EUR 15 million per year for large brands by 2028 (Re_fashion, 2025).

Q: What is the realistic timeline for commercial-scale polycotton separation technology? A: Practitioners with direct knowledge of pilot operations at Worn Again Technologies and Circ estimate that commercial-scale polycotton separation (processing >10,000 tonnes per year at economics within 2x of virgin fiber cost) is 3 to 5 years away, placing realistic availability in the 2028 to 2030 timeframe. Until then, product teams should prioritize mono-material designs and focus recycling efforts on mono-material cotton and mono-material polyester waste streams where commercially proven pathways exist today.

Sources

• Ellen MacArthur Foundation. (2024). A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning Fashion's Future, Updated Assessment. Cowes, UK: EMF.
• European Commission. (2025). Implementation Report: EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles. Brussels: European Commission, Directorate-General for Internal Market.
• Re_fashion. (2025). Annual Report 2024: Extended Producer Responsibility for Textiles in France. Paris: Re_fashion.
• Fibersort Consortium. (2024). Automated Textile Sorting: Technology Assessment and Performance Benchmarking. Amsterdam: Circle Economy Foundation.
• European Clothing Action Plan. (2025). Textile Collection Quality Assessment: 2024 Survey Results Across 18 EU Member States. London: WRAP.
• SOEX Group. (2024). Textile Sorting and Recycling Operations: Annual Review 2023. Wolfen, Germany: SOEX Group.
• Lenzing Group. (2025). Sustainability Report 2024: Closing the Loop on Cellulosic Fibers. Lenzing, Austria: Lenzing AG.