Mechanically recycled cotton is ready to scale. According to Amsterdam-based nonprofit Fashion for Good, recyclers have unused capacity, but brand concerns around aspects such as inconsistent fiber quality, fiber length and price premiums are holding adoption back.

Fashion for Good is looking to boost the use of recycled cotton through its newly launched Cotton Reloop Matrix project. The initiative aims to first gather data about the mechanically recycled cotton that is accessible today and compare it to brands’ specifications for knit and woven apparel. Based on trials with recyclers and mills, the project will also develop a standard operating procedure for spinning and processing recycled fibers.

“Recycled cotton has been talked about as a scale-ready solution for years, but the industry has been working from fragmented data and siloed testing,” said Katrin Ley, managing director at Fashion for Good. “This project is about closing that gap with hard evidence. By plotting real recycler capabilities against real brand quality targets, and by co-developing the operational standards to support them, we can move recycled cotton from a case-by-case experiment to a category the industry can actually plan around.”

Per Textile Exchange, cotton accounted for 19 percent of global fiber production in 2025, yet recycled cotton was only 1 percent of total cotton produced. Fashion for Good noted that mechanical recycling is a “crucial pathway” to recycle cotton into new cotton goods.

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