Circular Economy Still Spinning Its Wheels

The world continues to produce clothes and other textiles at an unprecedented rate—and discarding them just as fast. A new report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), titled “Spinning Textile Waste into Value,” estimates the total raw material value of unrecovered textile waste to be about $150 billion a year, and offers strategic suggests for reducing that figure.

“The costs of waste are staggering,” said Catharina Martinez-Pardo, a BCG Managing Director and Partner who coauthored of report. “We’re throwing away billions in value while missing a huge opportunity to make the fashion industry more sustainable and resilient. This is the moment to transform textile circularity from niche to norm.”

The report offers the following stats to back up its assertions: In 2024, global textile waste reached 120 million metric tons, with 80% ending up in landfills or incinerated. By comparison, only 12% of the total was reused, 1% was collected but neither reused nor recycled, and 7% was deemed suitable for recycling. Of that 7%, less than 1% was made into new fiber.

If left unchecked, textile waste could increase to more than 150 million metric tons a year by 2030.

Although recovering the full $150 billion in value mentioned earlier is unlikely, since not all raw material waste can realistically be captured, substantial untapped potential exists. With the right investments to build a large-scale circular textile economy, waste recycling rates could exceed 30%, yielding new fibers with a raw material value of more than $50 billion and creating as many as 180,000 new jobs.

To achieve that —and still build a profitable system for all stakeholders—BCG says the fashion industry should focus on five key actions:

• Promote demand for textiles with recycled fibers.
• Collect more waste.
• Modernize sorting.
• Scale effective recycling solutions.
• Invest in innovation.

Realizing that potential will require coordination and commitment from industry players, the public sector and consumers, the report concludes.

Click here to download the full BCG report.