Fashion for Good has launched a two-track project to map mechanically recycled cotton yarns against brand specifications in knit and woven categories, with seven named supply-chain partners — Arvind, Bestseller, C&A, Interloop, Reformation, Shahi and spinning technology specialist Uster — committing to produce 10 demonstration fabrics and run five production trials.

The Amsterdam-based partnership organisation is running the work in two parallel streams. The first will plot recycler output against brand quality requirements, generating a Quality Matrix that identifies where recycled content meets market expectations and where further improvement is needed. The second stream moves into factory-level execution: selected recyclers, working with project partners, will produce the demonstration fabrics and conduct trials targeting quality enhancement during production.

Both streams feed a Trade-off Analysis charting the interplay between recycled content share, cost and quality. Findings will be codified in an open-source Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), with the engagement closing on a roadmap for the data infrastructure required to scale recycled cotton across product ranges and regions.

What problem is the project built to solve?

Fashion for Good managing director Katrin Ley framed the gap directly: "Recycled cotton has been talked about as a scale-ready solution for years, but the industry has been working from fragmented data and siloed testing."

She added: "This project is about closing that gap with hard evidence. By plotting real recycler capabilities against real brand quality targets, and by co-developing the operational standards to support them, we can move recycled cotton from a case-by-case experiment to a category the industry can actually plan around."

Why is recycled cotton hard to scale?

Cotton accounts for 19% of global fibre production, according to the organisation. Mechanical recycling — shredding and reprocessing cotton-rich textile waste — causes significant fibre loss and yields shorter, weaker fibres. Most yarns can absorb only about 10% recycled content before durability suffers, a ceiling the coalition brands as the central constraint on today's blends.

That ceiling is the reason higher recycled-cotton percentages have stayed niche. Brands have typically benchmarked recycled output against virgin cotton specifications, a frame the coalition wants to retire.

What does the project ask of brands?

The initiative pushes a "fit for purpose" framework in its place, judging recycled blends against the requirements of the end product rather than virgin-comparator benchmarks. The 10 demonstration fabrics and five production trials should give sourcing teams a reference set when negotiating with recyclers and spinning partners.

Practical deliverables for sourcing, quality and production teams:

• A Quality Matrix covering both knit and woven categories
• 10 demonstration fabrics from named recycler partners
• 5 process trials targeting quality uplift during production
• An open-source SOP for spinning standardisation
• A roadmap for the data infrastructure needed to scale

The coalition blends brands with different sourcing footprints — Reformation's faster cycle versus the high-volume models of Bestseller and C&A — alongside vertically integrated mill groups Arvind, Interloop and Shahi, and quality-control instrument maker Uster. That mix gives the Quality Matrix and Trade-off Analysis direct input from the buying, spinning and QC sides of the supply chain rather than recycling data viewed in isolation.

Trial volumes end at 10 demonstration fabrics and five process trials, and Fashion for Good has not disclosed a target completion date or budget for the data-infrastructure roadmap. How quickly the SOP revisions translate into mill-level adoption will depend on whether brand partners extend trial specifications into commercial orders beyond the initial fabric run.