Textile Exchange Adopts Revised RMDF To Strengthen Traceability In Recycled Textiles

Textile Exchange has announced the adoption of its revised Reclaimed Material Declaration Form (RMDF), a new standardized framework designed to improve transparency and traceability of textile waste across global supply chains. The updated RMDF is the result of the Tracing Textile Waste project, led by Fashion for Good and launched in August 2023, involving waste collectors, recyclers including Recover, certification bodies, digital platforms and brands such as Target. After two years of collaboration, the new RMDF has been formally approved and will take effect from July 1, 2025.

The RMDF establishes a unified process for documenting the origin of textile waste, creating a unique ID for every declaration. This ID will now be reflected in Global Recycled Standard (GRS) and Recycled Content Standard (RCS) Transaction Certificates, directly linking recycled materials to their original waste sources. The new system supports stronger authenticity claims, reduces inconsistencies in manual tracking, and aligns with emerging regulatory requirements such as the EU’s Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR).

Recover played a key role in developing and piloting the RMDF, working with supply chain partners including Central America Spinning Works S.A de C.V and SAE-A Spinning S.R.L to track post-industrial waste shipments. These pilots tested both manual and digital data capture methods, demonstrating that standardized traceability can be achieved at scale.

For brands, the RMDF offers deeper visibility into supply chains by extending traceability to the waste supplier level, improving confidence in recycled material claims and enabling smoother certification audits. From July 2025, the RMDF will replace the former declaration form under GRS/RCS Appendix C. Recyclers and certifiers will transition to the new RMDF template, which can be completed manually or through digital platforms such as Reverse Resources.

As brands increasingly require verified, transparent sourcing of recycled inputs, the shift to the RMDF positions Recover and its partners to meet accelerating demands for circularity, accountability and regulatory compliance across the textile industry.