Recycled Textiles: How Clothes and Fabric Recycling can Transform the Future

Recycling is an essential part of our daily lives. As designers and others who work in the fashion industry, we all know the effect fast fashion is having globally. Consumers demand keeping up with every current trend, and we can’t change that. But we can make sure that what we do and the service that we offer in our industry daily has a positive effect on the environment.

Yes, manufacturers are producing an enormous amount of clothes that are in fashion one day, and discarded the next. As a result, landfills are filled with discarded garments. In addition, fast fashion is affecting the planet’s CO2 emissions.

It's time to do your part

We can improve how we design, print and manufacture fabric and garments to preserve the planet for future generations. We can try to limit the amount of energy, water and chemicals we use in the production of our products. And we can think of ways to recycle clothes and fabrics so they don’t end up in landfills.

There’s another positive effect of taking the planet into account in your company. It’s a proven fact that customers prefer brands that have a sustainable ethos, those that are environmentally aware in everything that they do. Sustainability is such an important issue these days that the world is taking it seriously, and we need to do everything we can to protect our planet.

What is fabric waste?

Every UK citizen produces around 3.1kg of material excess every year, according to statistics. And of this amount, people only recycle around 0.3kg. What’s more, they incinerate more than that – 0.8kg to be precise. But even worse is that each person disposes of around 1.7kg of material excess in landfills. That’s a sobering statistic.

And here are some more:

• It’s estimated that in 2022, 21 billion pounds of worthless material products will end up in landfills.
• org tells us that globally, 92 million tonnes of material waste ends up in landfills every year. And here in Britain we’re responsible for 336,000 tonnes of that amount.
• It takes over 200 years for fabrics to decompose in landfills, and throughout that amount of time, the fabrics generate methane gas. As a result, toxic chemicals and dyes are landing up in our soil.

Read our guide to tackling material scraps right here. Another great read is our inspirational blog on why sustainability in fashion is essential.

Why recycling clothing is important

To ensure that materials have less impact on the planet, more and more clothing manufacturers are recommending we recycle our garments and keep them out of landfills. And how do we do this?

1. Create sustainable fabrics that have less negative effect on the environment. When we manufacture textiles out of natural fibres, we use less energy and water, and greener dyes for colouring those materials.
2. Reuse old clothes. Material recyclers collect used garments like jeans, T-shirts and other items and resell them, or remake them from existing ones, to give them a second life.
3. More and more vintage clothes outlets are offering gently worn garments, which is another great way to recycle clothing.

The hard facts about fabric recycling

There’s no getting away from it – the fashion and material industry is considered one of the biggest contributors to pollution globally. We can change this with positive action and attitude. This involves manufacturing long-lasting products that are environmentally friendly, and using more sustainable manufacturing methods. It’s vital that we take energy conservation seriously, and do our utmost to cut down on pollution. 

What are sustainable textiles?

• • Sustainable textiles are those that are natural and plant-based, fabrics that have been grown without using pesticides and other toxic chemicals. Examples include cotton, linen and flax.
  • These raw materials are then manufactured using less water and energy so that they become even more sustainable.
  • Sustainable fabrics also include salvaged fabrics, materials that are given a second life.
  • We also consider some material blends of natural and synthetic materials to be sustainable. We consider synthetic material like rPET (recycled polyester) to be sustainable as it’s produced from excess upcycled plastic, eg plastic bottles.

  Read all about the sustainable fabrics British businesses choose for their products.

Recycling unwanted clothes and textiles

Here’s some helpful inspiration on how to be more sustainable:

1. To produce more sustainable material and fashion clothing, we need to use more sustainable fabrics, as this will have a huge impression on the environment. Since 2020, the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) in Britain, a policy followed by fashion brands, designers, material producers and recyclers, has been doing its utmost to assist the fashion industry reduce the effect of excess materials and garments. Through various initiatives, the SCAP policy has measured and calculated the sustainable progress we’re making and offered valuable solutions to “reduce the carbon, water pollutes and scraps impacts of fashion clothing products”.
2. For reusing textiles, various UK-registered charities, charity shops and organisations offer garment collection facilities. Aside from the material initiative undertaken by the likes of Salvation Army, there are many others you can use. These include icollectclothes, HeartUKand The British Heart Foundation. Some have a charity store, and others offer free home collections, making reusing textiles easy.
3. Think about ways you can use material remnants to create products for your small business.
4. You can also follow maake’s lead by creating new items out of these leftover fabrics. We call this the maakeLess material excess initiative. maake’s initiative includes sending material remnants to local charities, schools and educational institutions to be reused.
5. maake also collects all material offcuts from our printing processes and put these into 1kg and 2.5kg upcycling bags. And we offer these free of charge to customers in our personalised ads. Pick these up from our local factory in North London, for free. This way, you also save on carbon offsets as we don’t have to deliver to your door. You can also have one delivered to your home (the only amount you pay is for the price of shipping).

Some companies provide a recycling service

As we know, reusing clothing is good for the environment! Once you’ve reused your discarded garments and home textiles, they are sorted and reprocessed into new items.

Here are some more ideas on how to recycle textiles and garments…

• Drop off used clothing and textiles at material recycling sites, textile banks and material recycling points in supermarkets and local car parks.
• Some high street retailers like H&M, M&S and Primark have garment donation banks and garments, shoes and other recycling bins in a selection of fashion stores. Use these to recycle and reuse unwanted clothes and other items made from material that is still in good condition.
• Donate unwanted items and material to a charity store.

Interested in where you can recycle in the UK? You don’t have to find on Facebook Twitter and Instagram to find your nearest site or recycling bank. For your nearest recycling centre, follow this recycling locator! We have personalised content on this especially for you.

Looking at fabric recycling from a different perspective

• When you buy something made of fabric, make a conscious choice – select something eco-friendly rather than synthetic.
• Buy only as much material as you need for a project, no more. That way, you will find that you won’t have scraps to reuse.
• One man’s trash is another man’s treasure: remember this. Use leftover materials, like the ones we offer at maake, to create new items for your small enterprise.
• The easiest material to recycle is cotton, as it’s biodegradable. This is a good tip to remember every time you produce or purchase a garment.
• Read our guide to sustainable innovation in business for more inspiration.

How your recycling projects can save the planet

1. Recycle textiles by using them to make items for your company – garments, tableware or home décor and home accessories. 

2. Print a design or pattern on the plain materials, or dye them.

3. Let’s do a little arithmetic. If you order one 15kg upcycling bag containing material offcuts, you’re saving a lot of fabrics from going to landfill. And that 15kg is also equivalent to material waste usually created by 3 people in Britain in a year. Think about that!

We’ve put together a great guide on why your business should be sustainable. Read the important information here!

Your recycle effort reward from maake

When you order one of our upcycling bags, which we offer free of charge, you receive a bag full of plain material offcuts from our factory. We also give you a maakeLess material excess contributor certificate.

You can share this with your followers by taking a photograph of yourself with this certificate and tagging us @maakeuk on Instagram. Then we’ll add you to our contributor list for our global fans to see on our Instagram page!

Upcycle fabrics with us

Don't wait any longer, grab your 1 and 2.5kg upcycling bags full of material offcuts today. We also offer a shipping box filled with up to 15kg of plain material offcuts. Find the item you want and click here to get your free bag now. If you prefer, you can have the upcycling bag delivered to you – all you pay is for delivery.