North America Textile Recycling Market Outlook, 2029

North America sews up a future where waste becomes wealth, as its textile recycling market transforms the remnants of yesterday's garments into tomorrow's sustainable solutions. Improvements to the efficiency of recycling processes have been driven partly by technological innovation. Innovations such as chemical recycling and automated sorting technologies are further raising the output and effectiveness of textile recycling. This trend is increasingly toward a model of the circular economy, reducing waste, and reusing materials within the products through their entire lifecycle. Startups play a major role in bringing innovation to the textile recycling market.

Companies like Renewcell and Worn Again Technologies are among the key players racing in these new recycling methods handling the complexities linked to textile wastes. An example is Renewcell, which has a patented process for transforming cotton garments into a new raw material, Circulose®, that becomes a fresh textile. Next-generation recycling technologies are really changing the face of textile recycling. With chemical recycling, for instance which breaks down the fibers to their basic building blocks it can now be possible to recycle blended fabrics, previously hard to process.

Equally, new technologies for sorting, such as those driven by AI, will make it increasingly possible to sort the stream of textiles more efficiently and effectively. Some of the major companies involved in the North American textile recycling market include Goodwill Industries and The Salvation Army, which conduct their own recycling via donation centers and resale. Patagonia has been recognized to increase the use of recycled raw materials in its products.

Besides, there are other companies, such as American Textile Recycling Service, that provide specialized collection services and hence make the process of textile recycling much easier. The role played by the industry associations and the non-profit organizations in the promotion of textile recycling is very important. Associations like the Textile Recycling Association and the Circular Textile Foundation help in promoting best practices and further research, besides promoting policy improvements.
According to the research report "North America Textile Recycling Market Overview, 2029," the North America Textile Recycling market is anticipated to add to more than USD 280 Million by 2024-29. Consumer trends still continue to influence the textile recycling market. A growing demand from brands for transparency and sustainability drives companies to more responsible practices; "buy less, choose well" and the rise of second-hand fashion are reshaping industry trends with increased focuses on recycling and re-use. More and more often, brands incorporate recycled material into the line and offer more sustainable alternatives. This all requires much more collaboration across the entire textile value chain. Partnerships between brands, recycling facilities, technology providers, and customers are very important in making this process easier to increase effectiveness in recycling.

For instance, Make Fashion Circular an initiative by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation mobilizes companies to drive circular practices with the potential for systemic change in the fashion industry. By far, the fashion sector is one of the largest contributors to textile waste; the sector is increasingly turning to recycling. Brands are developing closed-loop systems for the collection of old garments and then recycling them into new clothing.

For instance, companies like Levi's and H&M are trying to incorporate recycled material into their products, reducing wastes but also catching the attention of environment-conscious consumers.

Market Drivers

• Regulatory Support and Policies: In North America, the regulatory environment significantly influences the textile recycling market. Various federal and state-level policies, such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) guidelines and Canada's Waste Diversion Programs, mandate textile waste reduction and recycling. These policies often include Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes that require manufacturers to manage the lifecycle of their products, including end-of-life recycling. Such regulatory frameworks create a structured approach to textile waste management, incentivizing businesses to invest in recycling infrastructure and technologies.
• Advanced Recycling Technologies: North America is a leader in developing and adopting advanced recycling technologies that significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of textile recycling. Innovations such as chemical recycling, which breaks down textiles into their raw materials for reuse, and automated sorting systems that use artificial intelligence (AI) for accurate separation, are making substantial impacts. These technologies improve the quality and purity of recycled fibers, making them more desirable for manufacturers.

Market Challenges

• High Collection and Sorting Costs: One of the significant hurdles in North America’s textile recycling sector is the high cost associated with the collection, sorting, and processing of textile waste. The logistics involved in collecting textiles from various sources, such as households and businesses, require substantial infrastructure and resources. Sorting textiles into different categories for effective recycling involves labor-intensive processes and sophisticated machinery, further driving up costs. Additionally, the financial burden of maintaining recycling facilities and ensuring the quality of recycled products can impact the overall profitability and sustainability of recycling operations. Addressing these cost-related issues is crucial for enhancing the efficiency and scalability of textile recycling efforts.
• Consumer Awareness and Participation: Despite significant advancements in recycling technologies and policies, consumer participation in textile recycling programs remains a challenge in North America. Many consumers are either unaware of textile recycling options or lack motivation to actively engage in recycling practices. This low level of participation results in a large proportion of textiles ending up in landfills, which undermines the efforts of recycling initiatives. To overcome this challenge, there is a need for increased public education campaigns, convenient recycling drop-off points, and incentives for consumers to recycle their old textiles. Enhancing awareness and participation is essential for maximizing the impact of textile recycling programs.

Market Trends

• Circular Fashion Initiatives: The concept of circular fashion is gaining momentum in North America, with numerous brands and retailers incorporating circular economy principles into their business models. Circular fashion focuses on designing products that are durable, repairable, and recyclable, thereby reducing waste and extending the lifecycle of textiles. Brands are launching take-back programs that encourage customers to return old garments for recycling or repurposing. Additionally, collaborations between fashion companies and recycling organizations are becoming more common, aiming to create closed-loop systems where textiles are continuously recycled into new products.
• Corporate Sustainability Commitments: Corporate sustainability commitments are increasingly influencing the textile recycling market in North America. Many companies are setting ambitious targets to reduce their environmental footprint, including commitments to use recycled materials and improve waste management practices.

For instance, major apparel brands are integrating recycled fibers into their product lines and adopting sustainable packaging solutions. These commitments are often accompanied by partnerships with recycling firms and investments in new recycling technologies.

Cotton’s vast availability and profound recyclability make it the top leader in North America's textile recycling market.
The ubiquity ensures a constant supply of post-consumer waste available to be recycled back, hence acting as an abundant and reliable resource pool for the recycling industry. Natural and biodegradable aspects of cotton make it all the more attractive to consumers and companies who are becoming sensitive to the natural environment. Cotton recycling is a well-established process, with steps that can be considered relatively easy. The basic steps include sorting, shredding, and re-spinning the fibers into new yarn.

This new yarn can be used to make all sorts of products, from new clothing to home insulation. By recycling cotton, industry wastes from textiles are reduced and resources are saved due to a reduction in the production of virgin cotton, which is water- and land-intensive to grow. This reduction in resource use comes at a time when environmental concerns and sustainability drives are increasing. The technological advances have improved both the efficiency and quality of recycled cotton. This makes it all the more useful for a lot more uses, further improving its market potential.

The enhancement in the quality of the final product from recycled cotton helped overcome part of the initial hesitation of consumers and manufacturers who may have been influenced by early negative perceptions regarding durability or aesthetic appeal. Consumers are demanding more ecological products, while businesses respond to the economic and environmental benefits of using large amounts of recycled feedstock in their supply chains. This new trend of consumer behavior and business strategy set the perfect scene for cotton recycling initiatives to grow.

The Apparel Waste leads the North American textile recycling market is due to that consumer culture and fast fashion trends elicit volumes of discarded clothing and accessories.
"Fast fashion" characterized by fast cycles of production, low prices, and rapidly changing trends has more than doubled the rate at which consumers buy and dispose of clothing. The business model made most popular by H&M, Zara, and Forever 21 has taken over the minds of consumers to view clothing as a disposable rather than durable good. Now, by virtue of this fact, the average American discards about 81 pounds of clothing annually, which is nearly triple the quantity at the turn of the millennium. The large volumes of apparel wastes pose both a challenge and an opportunity to the recycling industry. On one hand, it creates a need for urgent interventions on how best and sustainably to divert the textiles from landfills, where tremendously they contribute to environmental degradation. On the other hand, it provides a continuous and plentiful supply of raw materials for recycling operations. This has given the apparel sector an abundance that has enabled quick scaling up in recycling, more so than other textile waste streams like industrial textiles and home furnishings. It is the composition of apparel wastes that tends to make them more amenable to recycling processes than most other kinds of textile products. Many clothing items have comparatively pure fiber compositions, wholly made from one fiber, like 100% cotton or polyester, or made from simple blends that can be separated and reprocessed far more easily than composite materials used in many other applications. Standardization of size and style of clothing further simplifies efficient sorting and processing of apparel waste stream.

High returns from post-consumer textile recycling rank this sector at the top of the North American market because it has become very instrumental in the quest for environmental sustainability within the region.

Through the years, North America has taken giant steps toward waste reduction and increased recycling; in the process, textile recycling has led the charge. In particular, post-consumer textile recycling has been gaining momentum because it has huge potential for diverting a big volume of waste from landfills while reducing the large environmental impacts resulting from producing new textiles. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, textiles account for 3.1 percent of what residents throw away, hence pointing out a great opportunity for recycling and waste reduction.

Combined factors, such as increased consumer awareness of the environmental and social impacts from textile wastes, can be attributed to the growth in North American post-consumer textile recycling. Nowadays, most consumers have become more aware of the necessity for recycling and reusing textiles, thus creating a demand for post-consumer textile recycling services. Additionally, with advanced developments in recycling technologies, it is possible to collect, sort, and process post-consumer textiles effectively and produce high-quality recycled materials.

The North American textile recycling market has additionally been influenced by the establishment of closed-loop production systems wherein textiles can be designed for recycling and are reused in the production of other products. A few leading manufacturers have adopted such practices under the realization of the economic and environmental benefit inclusion of these wastes in their processes. By promoting post-consumer textile recycling, these companies can reduce their reliance on virgin materials, lower their environmental footprint, and create new revenue streams.

In addition, government initiatives and regulations have also played a big role in furthering the growth of post-consumer textile recycling in North America. This is best elaborated by many states and provinces going ahead to implement varied policies and programs aimed at enhancing the rate of recycling of textiles through mechanisms such as the programs for collection of used textiles and adopting targets on the same, not to mention landfill bans.
Mechanical recycling dominates the textile recycling market in North America because it is cost-effective and efficient for treating different types of textiles.
Mechanical recycling physically grinds textiles back to raw fibers, which are then spun into new yarns or fabrics. That makes the method particularly appropriate for North America, where enormous amounts of waste are created by this particular sector through fast fashion and higher consumer demand for apparel. Mechanical recycling routes are less intensive in energy use compared with the chemical route to recycling, making them more sustainable. It recycles cotton, polyester, and blended fabricsall common in the textile-waste stream.

Thus, mechanical recycling has the ability to divert a substantial volume of textiles from landfills, solving a growing environmental problem associated with textile waste. The other important aspect is the economic one of mechanical recycling. Compared with chemical recycling, the process requires less capital investment. Therefore, more small and medium-sized enterprises in the textile industry will get easier access to the market. In North America, many mechanical recycling facilities have been established, thus generating jobs and benefitting local economic development.

Besides, mechanical recycling can easily fit the increasing awareness and demand from consumers for sustainable products. As a result, brands incorporate more and more recycled materials into their offers, which, if anything, serves to shave a little off their carbon footprint while also helping to placate the environmentally conscious customer. In addition, such regulatory frameworks would encourage mechanical recycling by promoting recycling and other sustainable practices.

The US leads in the textile recycling market, largely due to a great focus on environmental sustainability and consumer awareness.

Consumers are rapidly turning toward recycled textiles, which drives the market growth. On the other hand, increasing government regulations on waste management and landfill restriction have also forced the hands of entrepreneurs and people to adopt eco-friendly measures. This has resulted in a strict enabling framework for textile recycling to develop. It has huge research and development investments that have resulted in numerous innovative recycling technologies which can process a wide variety of textile wastes. These new technologies have created more efficient and more effective textile recycling operations.

Advanced recycling infrastructure, including proper collection networks, sorting facilities, and processing plants exists in the US to enable the smooth management of textile wastes. The growth of the industry is also supported by the existence of a sturdy supply chain that ensures a continuous supply of recyclables. Government has been instrumental in fostering innovation and expansion within the sector through different incentives, grants, and policies that businesses can contribute to the adoption of recycling technologies and infrastructure. If not anything else, public-private partnerships facilitate knowledge sharing and resource optimization. Little wonder that the US has emerged as a leader in textile recycling globally, setting an example that shall be emulated by other nations in similar pursuits towards a more circular fashion economy.

• In 2021, Bank & Vogue Ltd. recycled approximately 1,400,000 pounds of toys. SK-Tex recycled clothing, converting it into car seat upholstery filling, furniture insulation, and ECO building insulation.

Considered in this report

• Historic year: 2018
• Base year: 2023
• Estimated year: 2024
• Forecast year: 2029

Aspects covered in this report

• Textile Recycling market Outlook with its value and forecast along with its segments
• Various drivers and challenges
• On-going trends and developments
• Top profiled companies
• Strategic recommendation

By Material

• Cotton
• Polyester & Polyester Fiber
• Nylon & Nylon Fiber
• Wool
• Others

By Source

• Apparel Waste
• Home Furnishing Waste
• Automotive Waste
• Others

By End-Use Industry

• Apparel
• Home Furnishings
• Industrial & Institutional
• Others

By Textile Waste

• Post-consumer
• Pre-consumer

By Process

• Mechanical
• Chemicals

The approach of the report:

This report consists of a combined approach of primary and secondary research. Initially, secondary research was used to get an understanding of the market and list the companies that are present in it. The secondary research consists of third-party sources such as press releases, annual reports of companies, and government-generated reports and databases. After gathering the data from secondary sources, primary research was conducted by conducting telephone interviews with the leading players about how the market is functioning and then conducting trade calls with dealers and distributors of the market. Post this; we have started making primary calls to consumers by equally segmenting them in regional aspects, tier aspects, age group, and gender. Once we have primary data with us, we can start verifying the details obtained from secondary sources.

Intended audience

This report can be useful to industry consultants, manufacturers, suppliers, associations, and organizations related to the Textile Recycling industry, government bodies, and other stakeholders to align their market-centric strategies. In addition to marketing and presentations, it will also increase competitive knowledge about the industry.


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