Yes, cotton can be recycled alongside other textiles and fabrics. Recycling one tonne of cotton can save 765,000 litres of water. However, producing recycled cotton is limited, as the quality can be lower than creating clothing and garments from new cotton. Therefore, it’s often blended with new cotton to form fresh products.
Cotton can be recycled in two ways:
Pre-consumer recycled cotton – waste cotton is processed to create new fibres.
Post-consumer recycled cotton – existing cotton is broken down and repurposed to form new fibres.