Study highlights positive environmental impacts of increasing textile-to-textile recycling rates in the EU – European Commission

Increasing textile-to-textile recycling rates in the EU to 10% could achieve carbon savings of 440,000 tonnes per year, and conserve 8.8 billion cubic metres of water – making a case for a renewed focus on policies to tackle textile waste.

Despite concerns over the poor sustainability of ‘fast fashion’, recycling rates for textiles are low. The process often involves ‘down-cycling’ textiles into low-grade products such as insulation. However, current levels of textile-to-textile recycling, whereby discarded textiles are shredded and granulated to be used as the basis for new fabrics, are only around 1% globally[1].

As fibre-to-fibre recycling technology is developed and scaled up, the rate could reach 26% by 2030[2]. Meanwhile, the EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles has an objective see all textile products on the EU market being durable, repairable and recyclable by 2030.

Researchers from IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute investigated some potential outcomes of increasing recycling levels to 10% by 2035. This would be a conservative projection, but it is ambitious compared to where things stand currently. Their work addressed a scarcity of research on the environmental impacts of implementing textile-to-textile recycling at scale in the EU, which the team felt would be needed to direct resources effectively in addressing the textile waste problem.

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Find the article and the full study here: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/study-highlights-positive-environmental-impacts-increasing-textile-textile-recycling-rates-eu-2025-06-18_en