New Look, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Oxfam and Circle-8 have created The Circuit, a new collaborative model bringing together retailers, textile recovery partners, automated sorting, recyclers, digital innovators and manufacturers to help build new circular textile value chains.

The Circuit is designed to create new pathways through which UK generated non-reusable end-of-use textiles can be recovered, sorted and pre-processed into materials for the existing and emerging fibre to fibre recycling industry.

By bringing together organisations from across the value chain, The Circuit aims to create the scale, consistency and commercial conditions needed accelerate future textile to textile recycling viability. The partnership supports the development of both mechanical and chemical recycling processes capable of transforming UK generated post-consumer textiles into raw materials for regional and global textile manufacturing.

The first phase of The Circuit will begin in January 2027, bringing together retailers and partners at Oxfam’s site in Batley, Yorkshire. The initial phase will focus on automated textile sorting, combined with developing reporting frameworks to improve traceability, identifying circular material opportunities, building relationships with recyclers and exploring operational models that could support further scaling of the initiative.

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