The Cotton Lives On recycling program said it’s looking to expand its reach this year. The initiative—which was founded in 2022 in partnership with Cotton Council International and Cotton Incorporated—aims to add more U.K. fashion brands and retailers to its ranks.
Cotton Lives On currently works with a roster of brands in the U.K., including Charles Tyrwhitt, Hush, Whistles, Hobbs, L’Estrange, Anthropologie, Paige, Bianca Saunders, Nexvision and Me+Em. These brands provide the program with garments containing at least 85 percent cotton, which are then sorted and processed, including removal of buttons, zippers and other hardware.
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The garments are then delivered to a natural cotton fiber re-processor, which converts the material into a cotton non-woven pad.
Cotton Lives On works with Devon, England-based bedding supplier Naturalmat to use the pads for roll mats to be distributed to people living in homelessness. U.K. charities Shelter and Single Homeless Project work with Cotton Lives On to distribute the mats to people in need as part of an essential products package when moving into a hostel or as part of a new home kit when they find a more permanent residence.
“We are thrilled to see so much interest and participation in the Cotton Lives On recycling program for 2025,” said Kim Kitchings, senior vice president, Cotton Incorporated. “By joining the program, fashion brands, retailers and consumers can help keep cotton’s circularity going by diverting cotton waste from landfills, while also helping people at risk of homelessness by providing them with a roll mat made from the recycled cotton.”
Each year, 140 million monetary pounds worth of clothing is sent to U.K. landfills, and in 2021, 711,000 metric tons of used textiles were discarded in general waste bins at household waste recycling centers. Each year, 88 percent of discarded textiles globally end up in a landfill or incinerator.
Through the Cotton Lives On program, nearly 8,000 kilograms or more than 17,600 pounds of cotton has been collected and repurposed into approximately 100 roll mats. Each roll mat contains around 6.4 kilograms or a little over 14 pounds of unwearable cotton, equivalent to 45 T-shirts.
As Cotton Lives On adds new partners, the campaign looks to create the sort of longterm impact of Cotton Inc.’s Blue Jeans Go Green initiative, which has recycled more than 5.6 million pairs of jeans and diverted more than 2,832 metric tons of denim from landfills since 2006.
