Fashion for Good launches the Sorting for Circularity USA Project, a new initiative focused on the North-American textile-to-textile recycling sector, which will give the most accurate representation of the makeup of textile waste produced in the United States.

In order to ensure that worn textiles are put to their best and highest end use, it is essential to comprehend and evaluate the business case for textile-to-textile recycling. The outcomes of this 18-month research will guide the selection of the appropriate investments to make and the steps to expand recycling, collection, and sorting innovations.

The Sorting for Circularity USA Project, which is led by Fashion for Good, is supported by brand partners Adidas, Inditex, Levi Strauss & Co., and Target as well as by Eastman, H&M, and Nordstrom as third parties.

Katrin Ley, Managing Director at Fashion for Good, said that they’re thrilled to be expanding the Sorting for Circularity Project's reach and breaking into the North American market. The US presents a significant opportunity with the potential for enormously beneficial outcomes given the size of the consumer market and the post-consumer textiles landscape following successful projects throughout such vast regions as Europe and India. This project will establish the groundwork for making informed infrastructure and investment decisions as well as a strong business case for recycling-based revenue generation.

With a yearly increase in the quantity of abandoned textiles, textile waste is currently the sector of the US waste stream that is expanding the quickest. 85% of the textile waste is disposed of in landfills, despite some of it being recycled. The need for recycled fibers is currently increasing, but the waste source is not readily available. Understanding the material composition, volume, and location of worn textiles as well as enhancing accessibility to textile recycling are crucial components to enabling the development of textile-to-textile recycling. The industry may gather used textiles, sort them for the best and highest quality end use, and satisfy the rising demand for both used and recycled commodity feedstock with a scaled-up infrastructure for textile collecting and sorting. The Sorting for Circularity USA project is started by Fashion for Good to address this issue and determine the supply of feedstock for textile-to-textile recycling.

The Sorting for Circularity USA Project, which builds on the lessons learned from Sorting for Circularity Europe and India, aims to emphasize the opportunity to expedite textile recycling with the most accurate assessment of the makeup of textile waste produced in the United States. The project aims to accomplish this through two goals: carrying out a thorough consumer survey to chart the path a garment takes from the closet to the point of no return; and analyzing post-consumer textiles thoroughly using ground-breaking Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) technology, provided by Matoha, determine their composition.

Resource Recycling Systems, the project's co-lead, will spearhead the consumer survey's dissemination and analysis along with the NYS Center for Sustainable Materials Management, and will carry out the textile composition analysis across the USA with assistance from advisory groups Circle Economy and SMART. One of the biggest trade organizations for used fibers, SMART, will coordinate with its members in the used apparel and fiber industries to take part in the project. Circle Economy, which was a co-leader of the European project, will direct the use of the waste analysis technique.