Sourcing through verified programmes has risen among a reporting group of fashion and textile companies during 2025, even as worldwide fibre production has continued to expand along conventional lines. Textile Exchange has reported that its members lifted preferred sourcing and cut virgin fossil-based polyester over the year, while record global fibre output and rising modelled emissions showed how much further the industry must go.
- Recycled sources supplied 76% of the polyester used by reporting companies in 2025, a rise from 67% a year earlier, while the recycled share of polyester made worldwide held flat at 12%.
- Certified programmes accounted for 9.4 million tonnes of cotton in 2025, 37% of all virgin cotton fibre grown, up from 8.4 million tonnes and 35% the year before.
- Modelled emissions for the apparel, home textiles, bags and footwear industries reached roughly 325 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2025, about 30% above the 2019 baseline.
- Global production of new virgin fossil-based fibre rose from 81 million tonnes in 2024 to 86 million tonnes in 2025, the main force behind the record total.
- Findings appear in Textile Exchange's Materials Market Report and Materials Benchmark Insights and Trends 2026, published 22 September 2026.
THE MEASURING TOOLS: Two measurement instruments produced these numbers. One tracks total global raw material production by weight across every end use, from automotive textiles and construction materials to medical products and filtration systems, as well as the fashion, textile and apparel industry. The other records fibre and raw material volumes reported by participating companies, enabling both individual and collective progress tracking. This year's work also applied an updated method for estimating how much production flows into each consumer sector.
- Sector volume estimates rest on a new methodology applied for the first time this year, covering the apparel, home textiles, bags, footwear and technical textiles industries.
- The emissions modelling was refreshed in 2026 to reflect those updated sector estimates and to fold in current emission factor data.
- That refresh drew on Textile Exchange's recently released cotton Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a study measuring environmental impact across a product's whole life.
- Progress is measured against a target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions from fibre and raw material production by 45% by 2030, from a 2019 baseline.
- The Benchmark is designed to generate insights for participating companies while supporting alignment with the industry's shared goals, according to the organisation.
THE REPORTING GROUP: Across the 384 fashion, textile and apparel brands and retailers taking part, sourcing choices moved steadily towards verified and lower-impact inputs during 2025. Their use of new virgin fossil-based polyester, produced from oil, edged down over the year even as their overall reliance on recycled feedstock grew. Animal welfare and the sources of recycled fibre also shaped what the group reported for the year.
- The group's use of new virgin fossil-based polyester fell from 0.54 million tonnes in 2024 to 0.48 million tonnes in 2025, a slight decrease over the 12 months.
- An estimated 1.5% of the recycled polyester these companies used came from textile sources, equivalent to 1.1% of all the polyester they consumed.
- Globally, by contrast, an estimated 3% of recycled polyester came from textile sources in 2025, equal to 0.3% of total worldwide polyester production.
- Among the participants that use animal fibres, 88% had an animal welfare policy, part of a wider prioritisation of animal welfare across the group.
- Most of the recycled polyester these companies used came from plastic bottles and other non-textile sources collected outside the clothing stream.
THE GLOBAL PICTURE: The global fibre mix differs sharply from the picture among reporting brands. Polyester dominates world output by a wide margin, cotton comes second at a much lower level, and wood-based fibres and wool make up smaller shares of the total. Total fibre output has continued to climb year on year as the world population grows, keeping overall demand for raw material rising.
- Polyester output reached 82.5 million tonnes in 2025, 59% of all fibre produced worldwide, of which 72.8 million tonnes was virgin fossil-based material.
- Cotton output edged up to 25.7 million tonnes, holding 18% of the global fibre market, the same share it carried the year before.
- Manmade cellulosic fibres (MMCFs), wood-pulp fibres such as viscose, rose to 9.1 million tonnes and took 7% of the market, up from 6%.
- Sheep wool held at roughly 1 million tonnes of clean fibre, though its market share slipped from 0.9% towards 0.7%, with animal fibres together at 1%.
- Fibre produced per person reached 17 kilograms in 2025, more than double the 8.3 kilograms recorded per person back in 1975.
THE CLIMATE COST: A handful of fibres account for most of the emissions attached to what the industry makes, and the routes out of that dependence remain narrow. Polyester has by far the highest emissions, with wood-based fibres, nylon, cotton, wool and leather following in descending order. Recovery offers only limited relief so far, because most recycled material still comes from packaging, while worn-out textiles remain a minor source. From 2027, a reporting requirement will strengthen the evidence base that tracks all of this.
- Polyester has contributed around 43% of the industry's modelled fibre emissions, more than any other fibre, and most of that came from virgin fossil-based material.
- The remaining contributions run to roughly 13% from manmade cellulosic fibres, about 11% each from nylon and cotton, some 8% from sheep wool and near 3% from leather.
- Recycled polyester made worldwide rose to 9.7 million tonnes in 2025, of which plastic bottles supplied 97%, leaving worn textiles a marginal feedstock for new fibre.
- Textile-to-textile recycling across all fibres has crept from 0.61% of production in 2021 to 0.76% in 2025, still hovering at roughly 1% of the total.
- Annual reporting through the Materials Benchmark will become mandatory for Action Cohort members from 2027, alongside a requirement to set verified-sourcing targets.
WHAT THEY SAID
We must continue to work collectively towards scaling preferred production systems such as regeneratively and organically grown natural materials and textile-to-textile recycling. At Textile Exchange, we'll continue working with our members to accelerate these efforts, through alignment around shared aggregate targets, pathways to preferred production systems, and collective action opportunities.
— Beth Jensen
Chief Impact Officer
Textile Exchange
As we move towards a more action-orientated membership, reporting data through the Materials Benchmark will become a mandatory step for Action Cohort members. By making this commitment, it will help companies track progress year on year, identify opportunities to strengthen their material strategies, and make more informed decisions about where to focus their efforts.
— Sarah Needham
Chief Engagement and Partnerships Officer
Textile Exchange
