The era of fashion’s use-and-dispose model is coming to an end. Every year, approximately 92 MN tonnes of textile waste is generated globally, of which nearly 36-60 MN tonnes is pre-consumer and the rest, post-consumer waste. A growing number of legislations pertaining to circular fashion in key apparel importing markets are nudging the industry to adopt textile-textile recycling.
Expanding on these regulatory efforts, in California, USA, producers must join a Producer Responsibility Organisation, which is required to establish statewide textile collection and prioritise reuse and recycling, among other parameters. In France, the AGEC Law requires fashion brands to finance the collection, sorting, reuse, and recycling of post-consumer textiles.
Building further on the growing legislative focus, recently, the Extended Producer Responsibility for textiles mandated by the EU is putting the onus on brands, not just on how they make products, but also on how they manage their end-of-life processing. This includes collecting, sorting, reusing, and recycling materials. As a result, major retail giants in the EU, such as Inditex/Zara, H&M and Primark, are addressing their textile waste.
For instance, H&M has integrated Renewcell’s Circulose into a growing number of its collections. Zara has partnered directly with innovators like Ambercycle and Circ to incorporate textile-to-textile recycled fibres into their commercial lines.
The issue of tackling textile waste has also found traction in other markets. In the UK, Primark’s Textile Takeback programme, developed with Yellow Octopus, collects unwanted textiles for reuse and material regeneration, while Uniqlo’s RE.UNIQLO initiative recycles unwearable garments into new textile materials through in-store collection schemes.
Buoyed by such initiatives, many emerging players are scaling their textile-to-textile game. At the global level, companies such as Circ, Circulose, ErdoTex, Infinited Fibre Company, Recover™, RE&UP, Worn Again Technologies and Fiberly have established themselves in the space through innovative recycling technologies and sustainability-focused initiatives.
US-based Circ has developed technology capable of separating cotton and polyester from post-consumer textile waste via hydrothermal processing; Circulose, headquartered in Sweden, has pioneered a process that transforms discarded post-consumer and pre-consumer textile waste into dissolving pulp for the production of new cellulosic fibres.
Similarly, Finland’s Infinited Fibre Company has introduced Infinna™, a virgin-quality fibre made entirely from cotton-rich textile waste, again from both.
Netherlands-based Erdotex implements textile-to-textile recycling of primarily post-consumer textile waste by collecting, sorting, and processing across various locations and hubs.
Evrnu’s, a Seattle-based textile innovations company, uses its patented NuCycl® technology to take cotton-rich manufacturing waste and discarded consumer fashion, break them down into their basic molecular components, and repolymerize them into new high-performance lyocell fibre.
Stockholm-based Syre focuses on large-scale pre-consumer and post-consumer textile recycling, and is targeting production of 3 million metric tonnes of circular polyester annually by 2032.
Meanwhile, manufacturers in India, too, have taken steps to nurture the textile-to-textile recycling ecosystem. A big reason for this is India’s trade pacts with major markets such as the US, the UK and the EU. For example, the India–EU FTA is slated to be implemented in early 2027. For the apparel sector, the deal is particularly significant as India currently exports around US$4.5–5 billion worth of ready-made garments to the EU. But to extract the maximum potential of FTAs, manufacturers have to beef up their sustainability infrastructure.
Vardhman Textiles has launched its primary textile recycling initiative, ReNova, a fibre recycling facility based in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh. The initiative transforms pre-consumer and post-consumer textile waste into high-quality, GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certified recycled cotton and polyester fibres. CanvaLoop, based in Surat, turns agricultural waste into forest-free textile fibres called Agro-Lyocell.
Similarly, Mumbai-Based ReCircle has formed its own textile recovery facility, where both pre-consumer and post-consumer textile waste are gathered, divided based on reusability and recyclability, and then either given a second life as garments or shredded in order to make new fibres. As per their latest Impact Report, 129,357.99 metric tonnes (MT) of dry waste are back into the value chain in FY25.
On the same trajectory, Panipat-based company Respun is an Indian textile recycling company that diverts post-consumer fashion waste and fabric scraps from landfills. They sort, upcycle, and recycle old clothing and home textiles into new fibre, yarn, and fabric. In 2025, they prevented 6160 tonnes of textile waste from the landfill and reduced around 33600000 kgs of CO2 emissions.
Birla Cellulose, the cellulosic fibres business of the Aditya Birla Group and Circ have a long-term strategic partnership that aims at Birla purchasing up to 5,000 tons of Circ’s pulp per year for a period of 5 years from Circ’s first commercial-scale facility in Saint Avold, France.
Most recently, Filatex India is yet to launch a ₹300 crore textile-to-textile chemical recycling facility in Dahej, Gujarat, through its subsidiary, Ecosis Limited.
However, textile-to-textile recycling still faces significant barriers. Chemical recycling is resource-intensive, while mechanical recycling can degrade fibre quality and cannot remove dyes or chemical finishes. Limited collection, sorting, and recycling infrastructure further restricts scalability, and recycling costs often exceed the value of recovered materials. Addressing these challenges will require stronger policies, clearer mandates, and targeted incentives to accelerate industrial-scale adoption.
The global industry’s less-than-one-per-cent recycling rate reveals how much work remains to build the infrastructure needed for a truly regenerative system.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
