Cotton Lives On invites UK fashion brands to join recycling programme
15 Apr 2025
Cotton Lives On, the recycling programme first launched in 2022 by Cotton Council International and Cotton Incorporated, is calling for UK fashion brands and retailers to join its cost-free initiatives to divert cotton from landfill.
In an open call-to-action, Cotton Lives On is looking to recycle old cotton, such as faulty or deadstock cottons, and transform it into something new as it builds on the hugely successful US Cotton campaign ‘Blue Jeans Go Green,’ which, since its launch in 2006, has recycled over 5.6 million pairs of jeans and diverted over 2,832 tonnes of denim from landfill.
The Cotton Lives On recycling initiative already counts several UK fashion brands and retailers in the programme, including Charles Tyrwhitt, Hush, Whistles, Hobbs, L’Estrange, Anthropologie, Paige, Bianca Saunders, Nexvision and Me+Em.
Kim Kitchings, senior vice president of Cotton Incorporated, said in a statement: “We are thrilled to see so much interest and participation in the Cotton Lives On recycling programme for 2025.
“By joining the programme, fashion brands, retailers and consumers can help keep cotton’s circularity going by diverting cotton waste from landfill, while also helping people at risk of homelessness by providing them with a roll mat made from the recycled cotton.”
Fashion brands donate garments containing at least 85 percent cotton to the programme for recycling, where they are then sorted and buttons, zips and hardware removed before being delivered to a natural cotton fibre reprocessor to begin the transformation into a cotton non-woven pad.
Cotton Lives On works with Devon-based natural bedding supplier Naturalmat to turn the unwanted cotton-based garments into mattresses for people at risk of homelessness. These roll mats are found homes by UK charities, Shelter and Single Homeless Project.
To date, the Cotton Lives On programme has collected almost 8,000kg of cotton and given away approximately 100 roll mats. Each new roll mat contains 6.4kg of unwearable cotton, equivalent to 45 T-shirts.