In a new online study, consulting firm McKinsey looked at the current state of textile recycling in Europe – and sees the potential to achieve a significant amount of fiber-to-fiber recycling in Europe by 2030.
There are several hurdles to overcome along the way, including textile collection, sorting and pre-processing, which severely limits the amount of textile waste available for fiber-to-fiber recycling. Collection rates are currently 30 to 35 percent, and much of the unsorted textile waste is exported outside Europe. In addition, most fiber-to-fiber recycling technologies have stringent fiber composition and purity requirements. According to McKinsey experts’ analysis, advanced, accurate, automated fiber sorting and pre-processing have not yet been developed. Here, the paper sees an urgent need for action: fiber-to-fiber recycling plants must better separate fiber mixtures, capacities must be expanded, costs must be reduced, and the quality of the end product must be improved. These bottlenecks are preventing the circular economy for textiles from scaling. According to the study, overcoming these obstacles would allow fiber-to-fiber recycling to account for 18 to 26 percent of gross textile waste in 2030.
Achieving this scale would require investments along the entire value chain, including textile collection, sorting and recycling, of €6 to 7 billion by 2030. According to McKinsey, after this investment phase, this industry – once mature and reaching a certain size – could become a profitable industry in its own right by 2030, generating profits of €1.5 to 2.2 billion. The textile recycling value chain could create a new, valuable raw material, enabling higher apparel production in Europe. This could add additional value beyond the figures mentioned in this report.
In addition to direct economic benefits, the expansion of textile recycling also brings several environmental and social benefits, McKinsey says. In the study’s baseline scenario, about 15,000 new jobs could be created, and CO2 emissions could be reduced by about 4 million tons, equivalent to the cumulative emissions of a country the size of Iceland.
