The textile recycling industry
Why textile recycling matters, where the material actually goes, and how the fibers compare.
Textile recycling matters because the volume is enormous and most of it is recoverable. The US EPA puts textile waste generation at roughly 17 million tons a year, and the large majority of that material could be reused or recycled rather than landfilled.
What counts as a textile
Textiles covers a wide range of products made from fibers. The familiar ones are clothing, footwear, towels, bedding, and linens. It also includes belts, hats, curtains, and draperies.
Scale, impact, and where material goes
Clothing made in the United States
Clothing is one of the largest consumer sectors in the economy. Buyers purchase an estimated 20 billion pieces of clothing each year in the US, around 68 garments per person. Domestic manufacturing has fallen sharply over the same period: roughly 75 percent of clothing sold in the US was made domestically in 1970, against about 2 percent by 2013.
Textile recycling and the environment
Textile recycling is one of the more beneficial forms of recycling because of the greenhouse gas reduction involved. Recycling around 2.3 million tons of clothing a year is comparable to taking 1.3 million cars off the road. Cotton is the main material in textiles and clothing, and it requires more pesticide than any other crop, with estimates of up to a third of a pound of pesticide per t-shirt. Synthetics can be worse: most are petroleum-based fibers such as polyester and nylon, and their production generates volatile organic compounds, nitrous oxide, and polluted water.
Reuse: where donated clothing actually goes
Many non-profits accept textiles and used clothing for reuse. Most donations are resold to second-hand stores or sold to exporters who move them into developing countries. Clothing collected in North America is generally high quality, so it sells well in those markets. Some estimates put used clothing at around 95 percent of what is worn in parts of Africa.
Recycling textiles into rags
The average person throws away roughly 70 pounds of textiles a year, and a lot of that material can be cut into rags for commercial use. Car washes, machine shops, marinas, and auto shops need rags on a regular basis. The rag trade has existed for centuries and is a practical second life for old textiles.
Recycling textiles into fiber
Clothing and textiles that cannot be reused or cut into rags can be processed into fiber. Once reduced to fiber the material is used as stuffing for furniture, as insulation, or as carpet padding.
Clothing collection bins
Collection bins are usually placed around a city in public places, and are typically a receptacle made of metal, steel, or wood designed for donation and temporary storage of clothing. Cities commonly regulate placing a bin in public, so check with local authorities before siting one.
How the fibers compare
What the material is made of determines what it can become.
Natural fibers
Natural fibers divide into cellulose-based and protein-based. The two most widely used cellulose fibers are cotton and hemp. Widely known protein-based fibers include wool, silk, cashmere, mohair, alpaca, and camel.
Synthetic fibers
Synthetics are popular in the textile industry because they can be manufactured to specification and are often cheaper. Widely used ones are polyester, nylon, acrylic, and spandex, each with different properties suiting different applications. Rayon and lyocell are man-made fibers derived from natural polymers.
Organic versus non-organic cotton
Cotton farming is a major worldwide industry, with estimates of around 100 million farmers growing it across more than 80 countries. Organic cotton carries real advantages: growers can save and replant seed, crop rotation nurtures the soil and keeps it sustainable over time, organic cotton is often grown alongside food crops, hazardous pesticides are barred, and lower energy use means fewer greenhouse gases.
The cost of non-organic cotton
Non-organic cotton seed is largely controlled by a small number of suppliers, which locks growers into seed contracts. Pesticide use is the bigger issue: non-organic cotton farming is estimated to account for around 16 percent of the world’s insecticides and 10 percent of its pesticides. A large share of manufactured fertilizer ends up in the environment and the water supply, and heavy irrigation adds to the carbon cost.
Hemp compared with cotton
Hemp has genuine advantages over cotton, though it is not a straight replacement for it. Hemp can produce roughly twice the fiber per acre, uses around 2 liters of water against about 9 for cotton, can be grown on the same soil for many years without rotation, requires no pesticides, and produces a fiber several times more durable than cotton. It is a useful resource in textile manufacturing rather than a substitute for the whole cotton crop.
Industry figures on this page are widely cited estimates rather than TRQ measurements. The US textile waste figure is from the EPA. Confirm any number against its original source before using it in a disclosure or a tender response.
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