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How yesterday’s waste is becoming tomorrow’s fashion
Two UK recycling projects are turning discarded textiles into materials for new products, as the fashion industry faces pressure to reduce its environmental impact. Their work shows how waste can be reused, but operators say wider change depends on brands designing recyclable clothes and on stronger legislation.
In Kettering, Project Re:Claim processes up to 500kg of polyester fabric an hour, producing recycled pellets that it says require 89% less carbon to make than virgin polyester. The facility can only handle items made entirely from polyester, while many textiles blend several fibres, making recycling them at scale difficult and costly. A Peterborough firm, Gen Phoenix, also turns leather offcuts into a lower-carbon fabric used by brands including Dr Martens and Coach; EU rules are pushing companies to make products both more sustainable and recyclable.
In short
- UK firms are turning textile and leather waste into new materials.
- Recycled polyester pellets are made with 89% less carbon, the project says.
- Mixed-fibre clothing remains difficult to recycle at scale.