Fashion for Good has launched the Cotton Reloop Matrix Project, a cross-industry initiative aimed at mapping and physically validating the quality of commercially available recycled cotton yarns against brand specifications.

The project will provide data on how yarn quality, price and recycled content interact, helping brands and manufacturers assess the suitability of recycled cotton for different applications. It is being conducted with Fashion for Good partners Arvind, BESTSELLER, C&A, Interloop, Reformation and Shahi, along with ecosystem partner Uster.

Mechanical recycling is an important pathway for processing cotton-rich textile waste because it can convert discarded textiles back into cotton fibres and yarns. However, shredding and re-opening the waste shortens and weakens the fibres, with only around 45–50% of the original input typically remaining as usable material. The shorter recycled fibres also limit how much recycled cotton can be blended into new yarn, with many commercially available yarns containing around 10% recycled content.

Fashion for Good said testing and evaluation are currently often carried out independently by recyclers and brands using different data sets, while recycled cotton is frequently assessed against 100% virgin cotton benchmarks. The Cotton Reloop Matrix aims to address this gap by creating a shared reference for evaluating recycled cotton based on fit-for-purpose performance rather than direct parity with virgin fibres.