Textile-To-Textile Recycling Hits Cost, Infrastructure Roadblocks Despite Tech Gains

Textile-to-textile recycling is making rapid technological progress, but high costs, limited availability of suitable waste and inadequate infrastructure continue to keep the industry from achieving commercial scale, according to a new report by Textiles Intelligence.

The 19-page report, Textile-to-textile recycling: The business case, said the economics of recycling remain challenging even as companies face growing regulatory pressure and increasing risks to raw material supply chains.

Less than 1% of global fibre production currently comes from recycled pre-consumer and post-consumer textiles. Most recycled fibre is still produced from other sources, particularly plastic bottles.

The shortage of suitable textile waste is another major hurdle. Only around 11% of post-consumer textile waste was collected and sorted into streams suitable for recycling last year, limiting the availability of consistent feedstock for recycling plants.

The report said textile-to-textile recycling could offer companies three major business benefits, creating new revenue opportunities through circular products, reducing exposure to raw material and supply-chain risks, and helping them meet emerging regulations.

However, recycled fibres remain significantly more expensive than virgin materials. Recycled polyester, for instance, is estimated to cost around 2.6 times more than virgin polyester.

The scale of investment required is also substantial. In Europe alone, achieving a 15% textile-to-textile recycling rate by 2035 would require an estimated Euro8 billion-11 billion in capital expenditure and Euro5 billion-6.5 billion in annual operating expenditure.

Chemical recycling is emerging as one of the key technological routes to overcome some of these challenges. The technology has the potential to produce recycled fibres with properties comparable to virgin materials.

Companies including Ambercycle, Circ, Circulose and Syre are developing and scaling textile-to-textile recycling technologies. But high investment costs, limited feedstock, infrastructure requirements and energy consumption continue to pose challenges to large-scale commercial deployment.

The report said the focus on sustainability has also changed as companies increasingly prioritise margins, budgets and returns on investment. Sustainability is consequently being viewed more as a financial and strategic issue rather than simply an environmental commitment.

Policy could play a crucial role in closing the economic gap.

The European Union’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and extended producer responsibility requirements are increasing pressure on companies to consider the end-of-life impact of textile products. National textile EPR schemes are expected to be operational by April 2028 under the current timetable, with several countries already having introduced such schemes.

The report also highlighted the importance of long-term commitments from brands and manufacturers. Offtake agreements and collaborative purchasing arrangements could give recycling companies greater certainty over future demand, helping them justify investment in new capacity.

For brands, such arrangements could also provide more secure access to recycled fibres as recycling capacity expands.

The report said the business case for textile-to-textile recycling is becoming clearer, but commercial scale will depend on more than technological progress.

Greater investment, reliable supplies of suitable feedstock, stronger demand for recycled fibres and supportive policies will all be needed to bridge the gap between technological potential and commercial reality.