Fashion for Good has officially launched the Cotton Reloop Matrix project, bringing together brands and manufacturers including Arvind, BESTSELLER, C&A, Interloop, Reformation, and Shahi, along with spinning testing institution Uster as an ecosystem partner, to systematically map and physically verify the quality of commercially available recycled cotton yarn against brand specifications, providing the industry with comparable data on the relationship between quality, price, and recycled content.

Key Points

  • In mechanical recycling, only 45% to 50% of input textile waste is retained as usable fiber, which is why most yarns are limited to around 10% recycled content.
  • The project will select recyclers to produce 10 demonstration fabrics under real production conditions, conduct 5 quality enhancement trials, and publish an open-source spinning standard operating procedure (SOP).
  • Participants span the entire cotton value chain: brands BESTSELLER, C&A, and Reformation, manufacturing partner Interloop, advisors Arvind and Shahi, and ecosystem partner Uster.

Cotton accounts for 19% of global fiber production and is a core category in the textile materials mix. While existing alternative recycling pathways can absorb cotton-rich textile waste, they cannot produce cotton-based outputs, making mechanical recycling a critical channel for converting waste into recycled cotton yarn and fabric. The process involves shredding and opening textile waste into loose fibers and re-spinning them, but shredding shortens fibers and reduces strength, meaning only 45% to 50% of input material becomes usable fiber, with the rest lost as short fibers and processing waste. The retained fibers are shorter than virgin cotton, so spinners can only blend a limited proportion of recycled fiber into new yarn, keeping most yarns at around 10% recycled content—any higher, and the fabric's durability becomes insufficient for commercial use.

The crux lies in fragmented data. Recyclers and brands each use their own data, testing is conducted separately, and there is no common reference framework to bring the two sides closer together; brands also often benchmark blended yarns containing recycled fiber against 100% virgin cotton standards, putting recycled cotton at a disadvantageous position. The project argues that the industry should shift its focus from "benchmarking against virgin cotton" to "suitability for specific applications," matching recycled fiber to appropriate product scenarios based on its actual performance, and employing targeted quality enhancement measures when higher performance is needed.

Katrin Ley, Managing Director of Fashion for Good, said recycled cotton has been discussed as a scalable solution for years, but the industry has relied on fragmented data and siloed testing. The project aims to bridge this gap with hard evidence—comparing recyclers' real capabilities with brands' real quality targets and jointly developing supporting operational standards, moving recycled cotton from case-by-case trials to an industry-planable category. Nikki Player, Senior Director of Raw Materials at Reformation, said recycled cotton is not new; the real limitation is the inability to increase blend ratios while ensuring fabric quality and hand feel, and the common reference point provided by the project could open up space for scaling and increased adoption.

The project advances along two parallel tracks. The first is building the "map": Fashion for Good will categorize by knit and woven types, mapping what recyclers can currently produce and what brands need, creating a Quality Matrix that visually shows where recycled cotton is already commercially viable and where targeted innovation is needed to extend its reach. The second is entering the "mill": selected recyclers will work with project partners to produce 10 demonstration fabrics under real production conditions and conduct 5 quality enhancement trials, generating a Trade-off Analysis showing how recycled content, price, and quality constrain one another. Best practices from the trials will be written into a universal, open-source spinning standard operating procedure (SOP) to support consistent production across global supply chains. The project concludes with a Cotton Circularity Roadmap report, outlining for the industry the data infrastructure needed to scale recycled cotton adoption across product categories and regions.

For the used clothing and textile recycling industry, the significance of this project lies in addressing the quality-price trade-off that has long plagued the commercialization of recycled cotton: once publicly comparable data between recycler capacity and brand specifications is established, and an open-source SOP unifies operational benchmarks in spinning, procurement decisions for recycled cotton yarn can hopefully shift from inquiry-based trial orders to predictable, replicable routine purchasing.

Source: Fashion for Good launches the Cotton Reloop Matrix Project - The Textile Magazine · Originally published 2026-10-07