China recycles about 5.15 million tons of waste textiles annually, a recycling rate of less than 30% against annual generation exceeding 20 million tons. In Shanghai, this circular economy chain faces three bottlenecks: absent consumer policy, an uneven recycling network, and low-value value chains. Shen Bin, a member of the Jiusan Society and vice dean of the Glorious Sun School of Business and Management at Donghua University, along with Ma Yidan, Li Qingying, Zhang Jianing, Li Ge and others, recently put forward systematic recommendations on building Shanghai's waste textile recycling system.

Policy side: Clothing and textiles remain outside "trade-in" programs

Shanghai's 2025 Consumption Expansion Action Plan provides clear subsidies and implementation paths for home appliances, home furnishings, and digital products, but clothing and textiles are not listed separately; the notice on large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in policies for 2026, released at the end of January this year, likewise focuses on automobiles, home appliances, and digital products, leaving only a vague interface through "timely research" and "other consumer goods." As a result, the "recycling, regeneration, redesign, and re-consumption" of old clothing struggles to enter the trade-in funding support and activity system.

Recycling side: Urban-rural efficiency divide, smart devices "installed but hard to use"

Relying on the "Hushang Recycling" public service platform, Shanghai has initially built a recyclable collection system covering waste textiles. But platform data shows that central urban areas have formed a diversified model of "recycling stations + community service points + online appointments + recycling activity days," with community recycling bins often full; suburban service functions are relatively weak, some facilities do not offer appointments, and opening hours conflict with residents' schedules, resulting in low usage rates. Configuration standards for smart recycling bins are also inconsistent: some communities use separate bins for textiles to facilitate disposal, while others still use mixed bins, where textiles and miscellaneous items are mixed, raising sorting costs. A more practical problem is that some smart devices require multiple QR code scans and cross-program jumps, and some service points in mini-programs do not indicate the functional classification and capacity of recycling bins, with only rough location information, creating a situation where devices are "installed but hard to use."

Value chain: Formal enterprises trapped by low-cost competition

The recycling segment for waste textiles has thin profits, about 200 to 300 yuan per ton, and a large amount of recycled material after opening and loosening flows into soundproof cotton, geotextiles, or incineration for power generation, making it difficult to return to the clothing industry chain. Shanghai's existing model is mainly "mixed recycling," and a specialized system tailored to the characteristics of waste textiles has not yet been established. Although the Shanghai Guidelines for the Construction and Operation Management of the Recyclable Collection System (2024 Edition) have included waste textiles in the scope of recyclables, there is a lack of detailed provisions on classification standards, disinfection procedures, sorting norms, and traceability management. Price signals are equally chaotic: the official platform recycling price is 0.1 to 0.3 yuan/kg, commercial platforms about 0.8 yuan/kg, while some informal recyclers advertise prices as high as 12 yuan/kg and mislead residents. Formal enterprises must bear compliance costs such as disinfection, traceability, and environmental protection, making it difficult for them to compete on price, creating a situation of "bad money driving out good."

Recommendations: Establish a clearing platform, use high-value utilization to drive the entire chain

In response to the above bottlenecks, the recommendations advance along three paths. First, add a dedicated "Trade-In - Clothing and Textiles" chapter to consumption promotion policies, issue "trade-in coupon packages," rely on nodes such as the "May 5 Shopping Festival" and "Shanghai Summer" to implement one-stop points for "recycling, testing, regeneration, redesign, and trade-in," and cooperate with the Shanghai Circular Fashion Design and Labeling Guidelines to promote "design for recycling." Second, build a gradient recycling network of "optimization in central urban areas, supplementary points in inner suburbs, and extension in outer suburbs," promote dedicated recycling warehouses and classified drop-off ports for waste textiles, unify municipal platform data interfaces and service standards, and eliminate obstacles such as multiple QR code scans and program jumps. Third, establish at the municipal level an "Old Textile Clearing and Coordination Platform" to unify recycling standards, quality grading, and settlement rules, organize centralized packaging and disposal and unified bargaining; at the same time, formulate reference recycling price ranges and measurement standards by category and quality, providing industrial support for high value-added applications such as regenerated fabrics and insulation building materials.

For the used clothing trade industry, these policy trends send a clear signal: waste textiles are evolving from "recycling as the endpoint" to a closed loop of "recycling-regeneration-return." Once a formalized, standardized recycling network and price mechanism take shape, they will squeeze the survival space of manual sorting and gray exports, while bringing new integration opportunities for regenerated fibers, old clothing redesign, and circular supply chains.

Source: Deepen the Construction of the Waste Textile Recycling System and Advocate Green Consumption and Lifestyles · Originally published on 2026-03-20