Half of the UK’s textile waste is not fashion — a finding that turns on its head the widespread assumption that discarded clothing dominates the problem. The UK's total post-consumer/industry textile flow is estimated to be 3,264 kt annually. This is split roughly 50:50 between fashion (1,599 kt) and non-fashion (1,665 kt) items. Household streams generate 1.22 million tonnes, while commercial and industrial flows add 1.29 million tonnes.
- For the combined Local Authority managed (LAM) and Commercial and Industrial (C&I) streams, the final treatment of textile waste is dominated by energy from waste (50%), followed by landfill (23%) and recycling (16%), with the remainder going to other processes.
- Post-consumer and industry flows total 3,264 kt every year, dividing into 1,599 kt of fashion and 1,665 kt of non-fashion items.
- Residual household waste in England contained 927 kt of textiles during 2023–24, with just 92 kt collected separately through recycling systems.
- Commercial and industrial waste across the UK added approximately 1,289 kt of textiles, including 890 kt from commerce and 400 kt generated through industrial activities.
- The report, Advancing a Circular Textile Economy in the UK: Mapping Non-Fashion Textile Flows, has just been published by the UK Fashion and Textile Association and University of Leeds.
THE STUDY: Methodology included primary interviews with sector stakeholders and secondary analysis of official trade, production, import, export and waste data. Construction and demolition waste streams were excluded due to insufficient information. Constraints included inconsistent categories, missing composition detail, and trade codes merging fashion and non-fashion.
- Institutions involved were the UK Fashion and Textile Association and the University of Leeds, working under the UKRI Back to Baselines initiative. The research was supported by UK Research and Innovation councils NERC, AHRC and Innovate UK.
- UKRI councils supporting the study were the Natural Environment Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Innovate UK.
- Methodology combined expert engagement with analysis of national data on local authority, commercial and industrial waste streams, imports, exports and production flows.
- Limitations included absent construction and demolition data, inconsistent public sources, and shared trade codes obscuring differentiation between fashion and non-fashion textiles.
WHAT’S AT STAKE: Non-fashion textile flows remain poorly served by reuse or recycling systems, despite forming more than half of UK waste arisings. These include healthcare disposables, hospitality linens, workwear, and technical products. Failure to integrate these categories into circular economy frameworks leads to persistent greenhouse gas emissions, lost resource value, and missed opportunities for jobs and revenue through new recycling infrastructure and innovative processing systems.
- Healthcare and medical streams include uniforms, PPE, wound dressings and implantable textiles, which face hygiene and contamination barriers to reuse or recycling.
- Hospitality and tourism sectors generate large flows of bed linen, towels and furnishings, which are mostly excluded from donation channels and enter waste management.
- Automotive and construction categories involve upholstery, insulation and geotextiles that require specialised recovery processes due to complex fibre blends and engineered properties.
- Public sector uniforms and branded corporate clothing complicate reuse markets, with logos or distinctive colours reducing resale potential and driving disposal through waste systems.
