If a garment starts as fibre, why doesn’t it end that way? Most clothing isn’t recycled back into clothing. It’s downcycled, exported, or disposed of. And once that happens, the original material – and all the value inside it – is effectively lost. Fibre-to-fibre recycling is an attempt to change that.
The problem we’re trying to solve
Globally, textile waste is massive. But the bigger issue isn’t just how much we produce – it’s what happens next.
Right now, only around 1% of end-of-life garments are recycled back into new textiles.
Everything else? It’s diverted into lower value uses or removed from the system entirely.
And in some sectors, the problem is even more pronounced.
Take PPE and workwear. High-visibility clothing is essential across practically every industry – from construction to public services – but it often has a deliberately short lifespan due to safety regulations. Once it is no longer compliant, it’s discarded.
In fact, it’s estimated that up to 90% of decommissioned PPE and uniforms currently end up in landfill.
So, what is fibre-to-fibre recycling?
At its simplest, fibre-to-fibre recycling means taking old textiles and turning them back into usable fibres – fibres that can go on to become new yarn, new fabric, and ultimately new garments.
Not insulation, rags, or filler materials.
Clothing to fibre to clothing again.
There are different ways to do it:
- Mechanical processes that break textiles down physically
- Chemical processes that rebuild fibres at a molecular level
- Hybrid approaches that combine both
But the goal is always the same: retain as much value as possible from the original material.
What this looks like in practice
This is where things get more interesting – because fibre-to-fibre isn’t just a theory. It’s already being tested in real-world systems.
At MYGroup, we’re working alongside the University of Leeds to develop a fully circular fibre-to-fibre process, focused specifically on end-of-life high-viz PPE.
The idea is simple, but ambitious:
- Take discarded PPE garments
- Break them down into raw fibres
- Spin those fibres back into yarn and thread
- Use them to manufacture new PPE
A closed loop, garment to garment.
The project is backed by Innovate UK through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership, combining MYGroup’s operational expertise with the research capabilities of the Leeds Institute of Textiles and Colour.
And crucially, it’s grounded in real material flows. MYGroup already processes around five tons of PPE annually through its ReFactory operation – giving the project a live, scalable feedstock to work with.
This isn’t a lab experiment, though. It’s a step towards something commercially viable.
Read more about our work with the University of Leeds here.
Why fibre-to-fibre matters
Fibre-to-fibre recycling isn’t just about waste reduction. It’s about retaining value.
Every garment carries:
- Raw materials
- Energy
- Water
- Labour
- Manufacturing effort
When we downcycle or discard textiles, all of that is lost.
Fibre-to-fibre aims to keep those resources in circulation – reducing the need for virgin materials and lowering the overall environmental impact of production.
It also opens the door to something bigger: a genuinely circular textile system.
The barriers we still face
If fibre-to-fibre is so promising, why isn’t it everywhere already?
Because it’s difficult.
Some of the key challenges:
- Material complexity – blends, coatings and dyes make separation hard
- Consistency – waste streams aren’t uniform
- Technology gaps – scalable processes are still emerging
- Cost pressures – virgin materials are often cheaper
Even in PPE, where the materials are more standardised, there’s currently no fully circular solution at scale.
That’s the gap projects like this are trying to close.
Designing for what comes next
One thing becomes clear very quickly: recycling alone isn’t enough.
If we want fibre-to-fibre systems to work at scale, products need to be designed with that outcome in mind.
That means:
- Simpler material choices
- Fewer complex blends
- Clearer pathways for disassembly and separation
- Thinking about end-of-life from the beginning
Circularity doesn’t begin at disposal; it starts with design.
Where this is heading
The goal of the MYGroup and University of Leeds project isn’t just to prove a concept – it’s to test whether a full-scale fibre-to-fibre recycling plant is viable.
One that could handle not just PPE, but wider textile waste streams across industry and potentially consumer markets too.
If that’s achieved, it changes the role of recycling entirely – from a back-end process to a core part of the supply chain.
It also helps manufacturers meet growing expectations around responsibility, including Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requirements.
The bigger shift
Fibre-to-fibre recycling won’t fix everything. But it represents a shift in mindset – from managing waste to designing systems where waste doesn’t exist in the same way.
Where materials don’t just pass through the system once, but move through it again and again, retaining their value each time.
That’s the direction the industry needs to move in.
And fibre-to-fibre is one of the clearest steps towards getting there.
