Circular Fashion Statistics

12% of material used for clothing is downcycled into lower-value applications [1]

Less than 1% of clothing waste is recycled into new clothes [2]

End-of-use contributed 1% of fashion’s total GHG emissions in 2018 [3]

About 82% of textile waste from households in Europe was discarded rather than separately collected in 2020 [4]

UK citizens send 300,000 tonnes of clothing to landfill or incineration each year [5]

Only 15% of textile waste generated by households in Europe is separately collected for reuse or recycling [6]

The recycled segment accounted for the largest share of the circular textiles market in 2023 at 63.4% [7]

The closed-loop recycling market is expected to register the fastest CAGR of 3.7% from 2024 to 2030 in textile recycling [8]

350,000 tonnes of used clothing goes to landfill in the UK every year [9]

The separate collection of textile waste will be mandatory in the EU from 1 January 2025 [10]

Recycled cotton accounted for less than 1% of global cotton production in 2022 [11]

Less than 1% of recycled clothing is turned back into new garments [12]

11.9% of EU household textile waste was prepared for reuse in 2018 [13]

9.6% of EU household textile waste was prepared for reuse in 2019 [13]

12.1% of EU household textile waste was prepared for reuse in 2020 [13]

7.4% of EU household textile waste was prepared for reuse in 2021 [13]

9.8% of EU household textile waste was prepared for reuse in 2022 [13]

10.2% of EU household textile waste was prepared for reuse in 2023 [13]

79% of retail executives say value is the biggest driver for customers buying secondhand [14]

The apparel market is forecast to grow by 2% in real terms in 2024 [15]

North America held 32.8% of sustainable fashion market revenue in 2023 [16]

North America accounted for 35.5% of secondhand apparel market revenue in 2023 [17]

25% of fashion leaders identified scaling circular business models as a top three priority in 2025 [18]

The average garment is kept about half as long as it was 15 years ago [19]

In Europe, textile purchases in 2017 required about 391 kg of raw materials per person [20]

It takes 2,700 litres of water to make one cotton shirt [21]

Synthetic textiles account for about 60% of clothing and 70% of household textiles produced in Europe [22]

80% of a product’s environmental impact is determined at the design stage [23]

Around 35% of all microplastics in the ocean come from washing synthetic textiles [24]

The textile sector was the fifth largest source of primary raw material consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from EU household consumption in 2022 [25]

12.9% in 2015 — share of EU-27 (or EU) textile waste prepared for reuse in the waste management hierarchy (reused amount as a % of textile waste generated). [26]