Europe generates considerable post-consumer textile waste (around 25kg per person in 2025), but the system captures and qualifies only a fraction for recycling.

This report, prepared by the Boston Consulting Group, finds that: 

• A viable European textile-to-textile system requires major investment but is not deemed to be profitable.
• Enabling mechanisms coordinating the chain and sharing risk are needed to bridge the economics gap. 
• Textile-to-textile recycled fibres are a new product category answering a planetary need for circularity, but with structurally higher prcessing costs. Under current conditions, they will not be cost-competitive with existing recycled routes.