New Look, Marks & Spencer (M&S), Sainsbury’s and Oxfam have joined forces with Circle-8 to launch The Circuit, a collaborative initiative aimed at developing the infrastructure and supply chains needed to turn end-of-use clothing into new textile raw materials.
The initiative brings together retailers, textile recovery organisations, automated sorting specialists, recyclers, digital innovators and manufacturers, with the aim of creating viable routes for UK-generated post-consumer textiles into fibre-to-fibre recycling.
The first phase is due to begin in January 2027 at Oxfam’s site in Batley, Yorkshire. It will focus on automated sorting, traceability, identifying opportunities for recovered materials and developing relationships with recyclers, alongside testing operational models that could support future expansion.
The launch comes as the UK faces a growing challenge around the volume of textiles reaching the end of their usable lives. Around 1.4 million tonnes of post-consumer textiles were generated across the UK in 2024, according to non-government organisation Wrap, with an estimated 45% considered non-reusable.
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While demand for recycled textile fibres is increasing, the infrastructure required to consistently collect, sort and process post-consumer textiles into feedstock for recycling remains under development.
The Circuit is intended to address this gap by establishing pathways for non-reusable clothing to be recovered, sorted and pre-processed before being supplied to mechanical and chemical recycling processes.
Circle-8, which is developing the initiative, said creating greater consistency in the supply of recovered textile feedstock will be important to establishing commercially viable fibre-to-fibre recycling at industrial scale.
Oxfam will lead on separating reusable and non-reusable textiles at the Batley site and will operate automated sorting equipment, drawing on its experience in textile recovery and reuse. The partners will also explore different routes to market for recovered materials, with participating retailers expected to help shape the value chains and end markets for recycled textile feedstocks.
Lynda Petherick, chief executive officer at New Look, said collaboration across the value chain would be important to developing more circular fashion supply chains.
“For New Look, this is about looking at how we can help create more resilient, circular supply chains over the longer term,” she said.
M&S head of sustainability & materials in fashion, home & beauty, Katharine Beacham, said The Circuit would complement the retailer’s Plan A for Another Life ambition to give five million items another life by 2030 through rewear, repair, resale and recycling.
Sainsbury’s Tu Clothing managing director Ben Smith said the initiative would be about “learning, testing practical solutions and helping shape a more circular textiles economy”.
The Circuit has its origins in the Innovate UK-funded ACT project. Its founding participants are M&S, New Look, Sainsbury’s, Oxfam and Circle-8, with Biffa and Ekman Group as development partners and Usha Yarns, Kipas, Reju and Worn Again Technologies among its recycling partners.
The initiative is also seeking wider participation from retailers, recyclers and other organisations across the textile value chain as it moves towards its first phase of activity in 2027.
[image credit: Green Retail World]
