Old clothing recycling is moving from scattered trials into everyday consumption scenarios. In August 2026, UNIQLO expanded its RE.UNIQLO clothing recycling service to stores nationwide and partnered with the internet environmental recycling platform Feimayi to open an online recycling channel. Offline stores have no minimum clothing quantity threshold, allowing drop-offs on the go, while the online channel supports scheduled door-to-door pickup. Launched in 2020, the project has also established five RE.UNIQLO STUDIO clothing rebirth workshops in China, offering old clothing repair and creative upcycling services. According to the China National Resources Recycling Association's "China Renewable Resource Recycling Industry Development Report (2025)," China's annual recycling volume of waste textiles is about 5.15 million tons, while annual generation exceeds 20 million tons, with a recycling rate of less than 30%.

Key Points

  • In August 2026, UNIQLO expanded its RE.UNIQLO clothing recycling service to stores nationwide, connected it to Feimayi's online entry point, and enabled door-to-door pickup with online orders.
  • The "China Renewable Resource Recycling Industry Development Report (2025)" shows that last year's waste textile recycling volume was about 5.15 million tons, annual generation exceeded 20 million tons, and the recycling rate was less than 30%.
  • The "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Promotion of Waste Textile Recycling" proposed 9 measures across production, recycling, and comprehensive utilization, including the use of green fibers, producer responsibility, and improvement of the recycling network.

Recycling Chain: Multi-Stage Coordination from Drop-Off to Regeneration

Ma Yun, founder of Feimayi, explained that old clothing recycling involves front-end collection, centralized sorting, categorized disposal, and secondary circulation or regenerative utilization. After consumers drop off clothing, recycling companies collect and consolidate it uniformly, then grade it according to garment condition and fabric material before deciding its subsequent destination. The chain has many stages, and it is difficult for a recycling platform alone to make the entire process work.

This has also prompted apparel brands to shift from only handling front-end sales to intervening in the back-end disposal of clothing. Taking UNIQLO as an example, the nationwide in-store recycling network and online door-to-door pickup complement each other, addressing consumers' concerns that they cannot recycle because they have too few old clothes, while also making it easier for the brand to continuously collect feedback on drop-off convenience, process transparency, and where the clothing goes, and adjust services accordingly.

Another direction is extending the service life of clothing. Aya Hanada, sustainability manager at UNIQLO China, said the RE.UNIQLO project was launched in 2020, and the initial aim was to try to extend the life cycle of clothing. In addition to recycling, it also meets personalized needs through mending, embroidery, and upcycling. According to her, the brand and Feimayi have unified the back-end sorting and disposal process, achieving full-chain traceability through dynamic records and a data system, providing a reference operational path for companies to intervene in old clothing circulation.

Policy and Shortcomings

At the policy level, the 2022 "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Promotion of Waste Textile Recycling" set out 9 measures in 3 areas: production, recycling, and comprehensive utilization. It clearly promotes directions such as encouraging the use of green fibers, strengthening the social responsibility of textile producers, improving the recycling network, and broadening recycling channels. The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Circular Economy" also makes long-term arrangements for the industry at a macro level.

However, the actual industry bottlenecks are concentrated in the middle and back ends. The level of sorting standardization, the maturity of regeneration technology, and the capacity for large-scale application all still need to be developed. Among these, the "fiber-to-fiber" (T2T) circular model still requires continuous exploration across the entire industry. Hanada said frankly that the entire process from recycling, sorting, and pretreatment to regenerative utilization still requires extensive testing with different partners. "The RE.UNIQLO clothing recycling service is not a completed answer."

From an industry perspective, with the implementation of relevant opinions and circular economy plans, recycling points are rapidly spreading across urban communities and brand stores, lowering the threshold for public participation. But to channel more than 20 million tons of waste textiles generated annually into standardized pathways, a more stable match still needs to be established among front-end drop-off habits, mid-stream sorting capacity, and end-market regeneration demand.

Source: From community recycling bins to brand stores, old clothing recycling becomes part of everyday green consumption · Originally published on 2026-09-25