The project draws together key industry stakeholders, with Arvind, Bestseller, C&A, Interloop, Reformation, Shahi, and spinning expert Uster joining under the Fashion for Good partnership.
The coalition will assess the compatibility of mechanically recycled cotton yarns with various brand requirements, responding to what Fashion for Good described as currently “fragmented data and siloed testing”.
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According to Fashion for Good, the project is structured in two parallel tracts. The first maps recycler output against brand demands in both knit and woven product categories, generating a Quality Matrix to identify where recycled content meets market expectations and where further improvements are needed.
The second phase moves into practical trials where selected recyclers, in conjunction with project partners, will produce 10 demonstration fabrics and conduct five trials focused on quality enhancement during production.
These efforts are intended to create a Trade-off Analysis highlighting the interplay between recycled content, cost, and quality.
The final phase will document best practices in an open-source Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), intended to help standardise spinning processes in global supply chains.
The project will conclude with the release of a roadmap outlining the data infrastructure needed to support the broader adoption of recycled cotton across product ranges and regions.
Fashion for Good managing director Katrin Ley said: “Recycled cotton has been talked about as a scale-ready solution for years, but the industry has been working from fragmented data and siloed testing.
“This project is about closing that gap with hard evidence. By plotting real recycler capabilities against real brand quality targets, and by co-developing the operational standards to support them, we can move recycled cotton from a case-by-case experiment to a category the industry can actually plan around.”
According to the organisation, cotton accounts for 19% of global fibre production, but introducing higher percentages of recycled cotton into yarn blends remains challenging.
The mechanical recycling process, which involves shredding and reprocessing cotton-rich textile waste, results in significant fibre loss and produces shorter, weaker fibres.
As a result, most yarns are limited to incorporating approximately 10% recycled content before durability is compromised, the organisation stated.
The global initiative calls for brands to adopt a “fit for purpose” approach rather than benchmarking recycled blends solely against virgin cotton.
