The UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT) has unveiled its National Textile Recycling Infrastructure Plan, a sweeping framework designed to steer the United Kingdom toward a fully circular textile economy by 2035. The plan sets out how waste from clothing and fabrics can become a source of economic and environmental value, rather than environmental burden.
Underlining the urgency of the move, UKFT notes that the UK currently produces over 3,000 kilotonnes of textile waste annually. Much of this ends in landfills, incineration or is exported, often with limited recycling or reuse. The new plan argues that by capturing, sorting, recycling and reusing these materials at scale, the UK can unlock substantial benefits in emissions reduction, resource efficiency and new economic growth.
The plan is built around four core pillars: investment in infrastructure, enhancing skills and workforce capacity, advancing recycling and sorting technologies, and expanding market capacity and demand.
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To enable success, UKFT is calling for greater automation in sorting and preprocessing facilities, more innovation in fibre-to-fibre recycling, smarter logistics across the supply chain, and stronger end markets for recycled materials.
UKFT emphasises that implementing such infrastructure will require significant investment, and it underscores the importance of the UK government introducing a textile extended producer responsibility (EPR) regime. Under such a regime, brands and producers would bear greater responsibility for the end-of-life processing of their products, internally financing collection, sorting and recycling.
Adam Mansell, CEO of UKFT, described the plan as a “call to action” and asserted that success hinges on aligning investment, policy, industrial capacity and innovation. “By aligning investment, skills and innovation, the UK can cut waste, reduce environmental impact and create new economic value in textiles for decades to come,” he said in a statement.
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The plan is the culmination of roughly two years of research and consultation, conducted under UKFT’s Circular Fashion Innovation Network (CFIN) in partnership with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). It draws on input across the textile value chain—from local authorities and waste management firms, to brands, recyclers and technology developers.
Already, in related work, UKFT has mapped out a possible national recycling hub model anchored by three automated textile sorting plants and a chemical recycling facility, which at full scale might divert nearly 150,000 tonnes of textile waste annually—of which about one third could undergo chemical recycling into new fibre.
That hub model also estimates significant economic uplift: avoided landfill and incineration disposal costs, job creation, and contributions to regional gross value added.
Observers say the UK’s textile sector has long struggled with fragmented recycling capacity and dependence on low-value downstream markets. Various initiatives, including the Fashion Industry Sustainable Change Programme, have attempted to push the industry toward circular models in recent years.
But the new UKFT plan represents perhaps the most coordinated roadmap so far to create infrastructure that ties the industry together.
Yet the challenge ahead is formidable. The costs of building automated sorting facilities, chemical recycling plants, logistics networks and training programs are high. At the same time, ensuring that recycled fibre finds a stable and profitable market is critical—otherwise upstream investment may stall. The plan’s success also depends heavily on government backing, particularly through mandates, grants, regulation and a functional EPR regime. UKFT has explicitly called for rapid adoption of a textile EPR as a cornerstone for delivering this vision.
Should the strategy succeed, the UK could dramatically reduce textile waste, lower carbon emissions tied to fashion production, create new jobs and industrial capacity, and position itself as a leader in circular textiles. But if investment lags or policy incentives falter, the risk is that much textile waste will continue to follow the status quo—exported, incinerated or buried.
