Maidstone Borough Council in Kent, UK, is working with sustainable materials company Recool to trial patching potholes with repair material made from recycled textile waste.

The pilot sites are Mote Park and Penenden Heath, both on council-owned land, and do not involve public roads — public roads in the county are maintained by Kent County Council. A total of 5 potholes across the two sites were repaired: 2 in the park and 3 on the heath. The work involved filling most of the pothole volume with a trial low-carbon product made from recycled textile waste, then covering it with a specialist surfacing material.

Rachel Rodwell, Cabinet Member for Climate Transition and Nature Recovery, said the trial turns the impact of fast fashion into an opportunity. "We are exploring a practical solution that has the potential to reduce waste, cut carbon emissions and support the circular economy," she said.

According to the charity Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the UK generates about 1.45 million tonnes of waste textiles each year, nearly half of which goes into general waste rather than being reused or recycled.

The council said it will monitor the repairs over the coming months to assess how they perform under the intensity of daily park use and weather conditions.

For businesses and the industry, the value of this move lies in validating a direction: whether textile waste can move beyond "downcycling" into a new outlet as infrastructure material. If monitoring shows durability meets the standard, municipal engineering could become another destination for used clothing after apparel and home textiles; but with the pilot limited in scale and avoiding public roads, whether it can become a stable source of demand remains to be seen.

Source: Maidstone Borough Council tackles potholes using recycled clothes · Originally published 2026-09-24