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The integration of recycled materials into textiles
About fifteen textile brands with varied market positioning — luxury, premium and mass-market — met to share their feedback on the recycled materials incorporation (RMI) into their products. You will find below a summary of their discussions.
6 min de lecture
Update : Oct 2026
How to overcome the barriers to integrating recycled materials?
Summary of a professional workshop
Challenges were identified during this workshop:
- How can the recycled materials incorporation (RMI) be encouraged when recycled materials may have different properties compared with virgin equivalents?
- Is an identical design approach for recycled materials and virgin raw materials realistic?
- How can RMI be achieved despite the aesthetic appearance of recycled materials not always matching that of virgin materials?
- How can the integration of recycled materials be secured within a geographically fragmented value chain?
- What adaptations to production tools are needed to enable the integration of recycled materials?
- How can alignment be ensured between the volumes of recycled materials available and the volumes required for production?
- How can the potential additional cost of recycled materials compared with virgin raw materials be controlled/absorbed?
- How can reliable data on recycled materials be obtained (origin, recycled material content, quality and environmental performance, etc.)?
- How can customer acceptance of products incorporating recycled materials be ensured?
- How can the entire value chain be mobilised to turn the ambition of integrating recycled materials into reality?
- How can internal reluctance be overcome and the change related to the integration of recycled materials be supported?
Among these challenges, four were selected for in-depth work. For each of them, the following are detailed: the issues encountered and their root causes, the conditions for success, and how to take action, both in the short term and in the medium and long term.
It is interesting to note that common issues emerge across the various challenges explored in depth, particularly the implementation of collaborative approaches with the entire value chain, coopetition between companies, and the iterative approach, which consists of integrating recycled materials into certain high-potential products rather than aiming for a cross-cutting objective across all products.
These discussions revealed a strong need to share experiences of situations that are often dealt with in isolation within each organisation — whether involving technical constraints, internal resistance or difficulties in mobilising the entire value chain.
Challenge 1 — How can the recycled materials incorporation (RMI) be encouraged when recycled materials may have different properties compared with virgin materials?
Issues and their causes:
- Maintaining the quality and quantity of Recycled Raw Material (MPR) over time, particularly for permanent collections, is made difficult by a complex and unstable supply chain: heterogeneous collected feedstocks and a multitude of intermediaries — sorting operators, spinners, contract manufacturers — which fall outside brands’ historical core business.
- A performance ceiling for components subject to high mechanical stress, which is explained by technical limitations: beyond 20% to 25% incorporation of recycled materials (IMR), yarn resistance deteriorates, conflicting with quality requirements.
- Different results depending on the material — pilling on cotton, a perception of lower quality for recycled cashmere, quality failures in certain segments — which is due to poorly calibrated IMR targets and increasingly complex blends: initial incorporation rates that are often too ambitious, and a proliferation of multi-fibre blends in the feedstock, which are difficult to control and recycle.
- Adoption remains hindered internally despite potential benefits, due to economic, human and regulatory barriers: the need to maintain constant prices, teams’ resistance to change, risks around “green claims”, and a brand image issue in the event of an upstream problem in the value chain.
Conditions for success:
- A reorganisation of the value chain, with a collaborative approach.
- A requirement for uncompromising quality, supported by standardised tests.
- Strong support from senior management and a clear economic vision for IMR projects — budgets, eco-modulation gains.
How to take action:
Short-term actions
- Establish direct dialogue with upstream players in the chain before finalising the specifications.
- Launch standardised technical testing campaigns before moving any product into a permanent collection.
- Train operational and design teams and help them build familiarity with the realities of recycled materials.
Medium- and long-term actions
- Use eco-modulations as a sustainable financial driver to offset additional costs and convince senior management.
- Incorporate gradually and without over-communicating, with use-focused eco-design — e.g. offsetting performance losses through technical membranes or finishes.
- Help standards evolve across the sector alongside the upskilling of teams.
- Pool needs across several companies rather than acting in isolation.
Challenge 2 — How can the recycled materials incorporation (RMI) be achieved despite the aesthetic appearance of recycled materials not always matching that of virgin materials?
Issues and their causes:
- Securing fast and stable replenishment over time comes up against sometimes limited Recycled Raw Material feedstock: the collected feedstock is broad upstream, but the material that can be used through mechanical recycling remains limited in terms of material types and colours, with sometimes irregular volumes subject to shipping-related uncertainties.
- The presence of visual defects linked to recycling processes (examples: visible fibre clumps after washing, shade variations and a greyish effect, fibre contamination and impurities in the yarn) is not accepted because the product incorporating Recycled Raw Material is not perceived as a new product in its own right, but as equivalent to a product made from virgin material.
Conditions for success:
- Start from actual industrial know-how rather than from theoretical specifications drawn up by designers/product managers and based on virgin material.
- Consult the end consumer on their tolerance for visual variations.
- A joint change in mindset among product, quality and design teams.
- Do not try to match the product made from virgin material. An IMR project can be seen as a new development.
How to take action:
Short-term actions
- Identify key suppliers and involve them directly in the initial discussions in order to identify the materials available and create ranges based on them.
- Test a gradual increase in IMR on an existing product, to identify the visual tolerance threshold.
- Test consumer perception of the aesthetic appearance, for example via a test product.
Medium- and long-term actions
- Prioritise fillings and hidden components, and accept a different aesthetic — product families that are tolerant from the outset, relaxed specifications.
- Allow double dyeing in the event of slight synthetic contamination.
Challenge 3 — How can the entire value chain be mobilised to turn the ambition of integrating Recycled Raw Material into reality?
Issues and their causes:
- Strategic support from management is still insufficient. Indeed, integrating Recycled Raw Material (MPR) requires overcoming a certain degree of inertia in the sector — both internal and external — which cannot be overcome without strategic commitment from management.
- Difficulty in bringing suppliers on board, which is explained in particular by an asymmetry in resources and knowledge along the value chain: the major historical production regions — in Asia — have dedicated structures to work on this topic, unlike near-import players, which often have only small teams and are not always very willing to address the subject.
Conditions for success:
- Strong and consistent support from senior management, combined with day-to-day operational coordination.
- A pragmatic approach, initially focusing on products for which the value chain is most willing to engage.
- Coopetition between competing companies: pooling audits, logistics and the purchase of recycled raw materials, without sharing differentiating elements — style, pricing policy, etc.
- A cooperative approach combining a firm requirement for these suppliers to take action, support on certain topics — e.g. the additional cost of audits — and a deadline agreed jointly with the supplier to find solutions.
How to take action:
Short-term actions
- Train internal employees.
- Map all players in the value chain — material suppliers, contract manufacturers, retailers, etc. — in order to prioritise willing and collaborative stakeholders.
- Start with targeted pilot projects — e.g. starting with integrated suppliers — before scaling up.
Medium- and long-term actions
- Rely on responsible material purchasing coalitions, and be prepared to give up certain ranges until viable alternatives are available.
- Maintain long-term training and awareness-raising for teams.
