Threading the loop: Textile recycling and fibre recovery

The document identifies Cape Town as a strategic hub for textile recycling due to its concentration of clothing manufacturers and retailers. It argues that transitioning from a linear to a circular textile economy can mitigate supply chain volatility and reduce landfill pressure. The brief highlights two primary opportunities: creating a commercial open-loop recycling hub to process over 70,000 tonnes of annual textile waste and establishing Africa's first commercial-scale closed-loop fibre-to-fibre recycling facility. Key barriers include a lack of textile-specific waste data, high capital requirements for advanced technology, and the complexity of processing post-consumer mixed materials. The document recommends the development of mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requirements and the use of the Retail-CTFL Masterplan to unite the industry under circularity targets.

• Cape Town's municipal landfills received approximately 70,300 tonnes of textile waste in 2022, representing about 6.38% of the 1.1 million tonnes of total waste disposed of at these sites.
• There is a significant opportunity to establish a commercial open-loop recycling hub in Cape Town to process more than 70,000 tonnes of textile waste annually, leveraging existing recovery and aggregation networks.
• South Africa currently lacks large-scale fibre-to-fibre recycling activities, presenting an early mover opportunity to establish Africa's first commercial-scale facility of this type in Cape Town.
• The business case for landfill alternatives in Cape Town is strengthened by the city having the highest landfill tipping fees among South African metros, which cost R584 (excluding VAT) per tonne of general waste in 2022/23.
• The South African clothing, textile, footwear and leather (CTFL) sector is a net importer; in 2022, the country imported R60.2 billion worth of textile-related products while exporting R20.8 billion.
• Critical barriers to scaling textile recycling include a lack of meaningful waste data, high capital investment for fibre-to-fibre technology, and the absence of local technology to separate blended fibres.

APA

GreenCape (n.d.). Threading the loop: Textile recycling and fibre recovery. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Textile-recycling-and-fibre-recovery_industry_brief.pdf

Chicago

GreenCape. Threading the loop: Textile recycling and fibre recovery. n.d. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Textile-recycling-and-fibre-recovery_industry_brief.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=GreenCape |title=Threading the loop: Textile recycling and fibre recovery |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Textile-recycling-and-fibre-recovery_industry_brief.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greencapendthreading, author = {{GreenCape}}, title = {{Threading the loop: Textile recycling and fibre recovery}}, institution = {GreenCape}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Textile-recycling-and-fibre-recovery_industry_brief.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }