WRAP Launches Global Programme To Rethink Post-Consumer Textiles

Textile collection systems are under pressure across major markets…

49% In the UK, almost half (49%) of used textiles are discarded in residual waste.

Textiles Market Situation Report 2024

85% In the EU, 85% of household textile waste is not separately collected and instead ended up as mixed household waste, from which it can’t be reused or recycled.

Circularity of the EU textiles value chain in numbers

The challenge isn’t simply to collect more. It’s to build systems that work. WRAP’s Textiles Collections Transition Programme is a collaborative, multi-year global initiative, bringing brands and downstream stakeholders together to transform post-consumer textile collections.

By connecting collection, sorting, reuse, recycling, infrastructure, markets and policy, WRAP is identifying, testing and scaling practical solutions to build systems that work.

Global environmental action NGO WRAP has just published, 8th October, the first output of its Textiles Collection Transition Programme, funded by key stakeholders. The programme aims to change how post-consumer textiles are collected, sorted, reused and recycled in the UK.

The Textiles Collections Transition Programme is WRAP’s collaborative programme uniting leading brands and stakeholders across the supply chain to redesign post-consumer collections. The programme aims to maximise the value of post-consumer textiles by keeping more textiles out of residual waste and dry mixed recycling, retaining their value through reuse, better enabling fibre-to-fibre recycling processes and supporting a fair, transparent and financially sustainable sector.

It offers system level solutions to a system level problem, offering an agile programme in the absence of policy on post-consumer textiles that can help to tackle elements such as textiles fly tipping and support the post-consumer sector.

The programme is guided by three core pillars:

• Maximising citizen engagement and participation: Encouraging better donation and disposal decisions by making textile collections simple, accessible and rewarding.
• Creating a fair and sustainable system: Developing a fair, transparent and financially sustainable model that works for all actors across the value chain.
• Unlocking fibre-to-fibre recycling at scale: Improving feedstock quality and lowering operational costs to support the commercial viability of fibre-to-fibre recycling.

The Programme compliments WRAP’s companion work through the UK Textiles Pact seeking to make wider system changes through circular product design; prioritising durability, driving circular business models and reducing environmental impacts across the textiles value chain.

With investment from Next, Primark and Tesco funding Phase One of the programme, the resulting publication Transformative Practice in Textiles Collection represents a key moment, providing different solution options to help stakeholders find better ways to collect textiles to maximise their value, and help businesses and organisations transform how they think about and value post-consumer textiles.

Now, the programme moves into the practical co-design phase and a series of stakeholder workshops to develop a Co-designed Programme for Impact, the Blueprint to be published in Spring 2027. Phase One of the programme, the first publication, Transformative Practice in Textiles Collection, identifies existing good practice, opportunities and potential solutions to improve how post-consumer textiles are collected, helping stakeholders maximise their value

Catherine David, CEO, WRAP said: “Transforming textile collections is an industry-wide challenge that no organisation can solve alone. By investing in this programme, NEXT, Primark and Tesco are showing the leadership needed to move from ambition to action and help build a system that works for the whole sector.”

The Textiles Collections Transition Programme comes at a critical time for the UK with an estimated 1.45 million tonnes of post-consumer textiles arising each year, the equivalent to 21 kg per person. Of this, nearly half (750,000 tonnes) goes into household residual waste with most people typically discarding 35 items a year, of which 84% are incinerated and 11% landfilled. 

To compound the problem, textiles consumption is increasing by 21% based on annual reporting, meaning the volume of post-consumer textiles will only increase.

The current system has been struggling for many years with the price per tonne of post-consumer textiles sold through charity shops falling from £375 in January 2024, to just £70 per tonne two years later. WRAP and others have repeatedly warned that the sector faces an existential crisis with the cost of collecting and sorting worn-out textiles estimated to now stand at £88 million per year.

The sector continues to lose money because revenues from reusable clothing are no longer sufficient to offset the cost of handling non-reusable textiles. Maintaining a viable infrastructure is critical to avoid system collapse and protect the economic and social value generated by the reuse and recycling sector, and ensure that textiles remain available for their highest value use.

Textiles Collections Transition Programme builds on existing industry and policy discussions about the future of post-consumer textiles management to ensure that the transition to a circular textiles economy strengthens the current collection, reuse and recycling system.

While investment in sorting technology, fibre-to-fibre recycling, and recycled-content continue, demand needs an effective collection system that gets textiles out of wardrobes and away from residual waste streams. In this way collections are the critical link between citizens and a circular textiles system.

WRAP is calling on retailers, brands, local authorities, charities, collectors & sorters, recyclers, waste management companies, innovators and organisations across the value chain to share their evidence. The NGO is keen for support when the programme moves into implementation and scaling phase through Collective Action Projects that will test and scale solutions to support system change, and is looking for partners to work with across the value chain.

Post-consumer Textiles waste is a global problem, with the EU generating over 12 million tonnes of textile waste per year. Through its Europe and Americas entities, WRAP is exploring opportunities to expand and adapt this work in the EU and US, supporting emerging regional and national approaches to maximise the value of post-consumer textiles.

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