Danish textile waste isn’t matching its circular ambitions. A detailed fibre analysis of discarded garments has found that mechanical and chemical recyclers are facing a waste stream largely incompatible with their needs. By grouping fibres by material composition and disruption potential, the study has called for upstream design changes and smarter sorting as prerequisites for viable circular systems, reinforcing that infrastructure alone won’t fix what fibre composition continues to undermine.
- Only a small share of garments matched requirements for current fibre-to-fibre recycling technologies or closed-loop reuse.
- Cotton and polyester were the most common fibres found in the sample, appearing both in pure form and in various blended combinations.
- Elastane, polyamide, and viscose blends created complexity for mechanical and chemical recycling strategies.
- Garments with multilayer construction or coatings were consistently incompatible with standard recycling routes.
- The findings are from the paper ‘Assessing the Circularity Potential of Textile Flows for Future Markets in Denmark’, published in Sustainable Production and Consumption on 6 August.
THE STUDY: The study was conducted by Heather Margaret Logan, Valentina Rossi, Kamilla Hansen Kastrup, Maggie Ziggie Søndergaard, and Anders Damgaard — researchers from the Technical University of Denmark. Their aim was to anatomise Denmark’s post-consumer textile waste by categorising garments into fibre-based groups and examining their compatibility with circular recycling routes, thereby connecting fibre flows to infrastructure, design policy, and end-of-life viability.
- Each garment was assigned to a material-based group using a mix of visual inspection, label checking, and confirmatory fibre testing for uncertain cases.
- The research prioritised material composition over garment type, allowing for analysis of recyclability independent of fashion category or product use.
- A structured sampling strategy ensured that garments reflected varied demographics, including gender, age, and use intensity.
- The study assessed the compatibility of each fibre group with current and emerging circular end-of-life technologies.
- Researchers aimed to generate actionable data for improving design standards, sorting infrastructure, and recycling alignment in Denmark’s textile system.
WHAT’S AT STAKE: Denmark’s circular textile ambitions hinge on a supply of recyclable post-consumer materials. However, the study reveals a dominant presence of fibre blends that are unsuitable for current recycling systems. Achieving circularity will require a concerted effort across design, collection, and processing to align waste flows with recycling capabilities and reduce contamination from incompatible materials such as elastane, polyamide, and complex multilayer textiles.
- More than half the waste garments were 100% cotton or 100% polyester, offering a cleaner base for sorting innovation.
- A mismatch exists between Denmark’s policy assumptions and actual composition of end-of-life textiles.
WHAT THE DATA SHOWS: Cotton and polyester were the most common fibres observed in the analysed garments, often appearing in both pure form and various blends. Fabrics containing elastane, viscose, or polyamide followed in frequency and presented distinct challenges for recyclability. The dataset suggests that while some materials offer cleaner recovery potential, others demand blend-specific strategies due to their chemical or structural complexity.
- Cotton–elastane and polyester–elastane were commonly found in garments designed for stretch, comfort, or active use.
- Some garments could not be confidently classified due to degraded labels or ambiguous material combinations.
