LONDON/DEVON, England — April 14, 2025 — The Cotton Lives On™ program kicks off its recycling activities for 2025. First launched in 2022 by Cotton Council International and Cotton Incorporated, Cotton Lives On invites UK fashion brands and retailers to join its cost-free initiative.
A call-to-action to recycle old cotton and transform it into something new and beneficial, the UK not-for-profit initiative complements the hugely successful U.S. 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.
In the UK, following reprocessing where it is transformed into a cotton non-woven, 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.
Some of the fashion brands and retailers already participating in the Cotton Lives On recycling program in the UK include, Charles Tyrwhitt, Hush, Whistles, Hobbs, L’Estrange, Anthropologie, Paige, Bianca Saunders, Nexvision and Me+Em.
“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 landfill, while also helping people at risk of homelessness by providing them with a roll mat made from the recycled cotton.”
As garments containing at least 85-percent cotton are given to the program for recycling, they are sorted through with buttons, zips and hardware removed before being delivered to a natural cotton fiber reprocessor to begin the transformation. Once reprocessed into a cotton non-woven pad, it is provided to Naturalmat to make roll mats for the program.
To date, the Cotton Lives On program has collected almost 8,000 kg of cotton and given away approximately 100 roll mats. Each new roll mat contains 6.4 kg of unwearable cotton, equivalent to 45 T-shirts. People around the UK at risk of homelessness and living in difficult conditions are gifted the mattresses as part of their first essential products package when moving to a hostel or as part of their new home kit once they have been found a more permanent place of residence.
Cotton is a wonderfully natural, durable and recyclable fiber grown from the earth and fashion brands, retailers and consumers can easily divert any kind of unwanted cotton fabrics or garments from landfill by joining the Cotton Lives On program. Every year, £140m worth of clothing is sent to UK landfill1 and in 2021, 711,000 metric tons of used textiles were discarded in household bins and in general waste containers at Household Waste Recycling Centres2. Globally, 88 percent of textiles end-up in landfill or go to incineration every year3.
The Cotton Lives On program’s purpose is simple. Its aim is to reduce landfill waste and extend the life of old cotton in a way that helps both people and our planet.
1 Valuing our clothes: The cost of UK fashion
2 WRAP, Textiles Market Situation Report
3 10 Concerning Fast Fashion Waste Statistics, Earth.org, 2023
Inspired by a similar and successful program in the United States, the Cotton Lives On recycling program was created in 2022, jointly by Cotton Council International and Cotton Incorporated as a call-to-action to recycle old cotton and give it new life by transforming it into something new. Cotton Lives On is a trademark of Cotton Incorporated.
Posted: April 14, 2025
Source: Cotton Incorporated
