When you hear the words ‘textile waste’, what do you think of? If we had to guess, we’d say that for most people, what springs to mind is fast fashion: mass production meets overconsumption, conjuring images of great mounds of unwanted clothing piled up in the Atacama desert or washed up on African shorelines like flotsam and jetsam.
In the UK, 42% of all textile waste in landfills comes from homeware - approximately 380,000 tonnes. So why does fashion tend to dominate the narrative?
On this day four years ago, our Founder Jules published an Open Letter to the interiors industry calling on designers and manufacturers of home textiles to drive positive change by adopting a similar approach to the fashion industry to tackle waste. It’s a helpful comparison, paving the way for our industry and providing a benchmark of what we can achieve through collective effort.
As Jules again calls upon the interiors industry to take action against textile waste in an updated Open Letter for Earth Day 2025, we're looking back on some of the progress that has been made in our industry and further afield since 2021.
A Step In The Right Direction
Change is happening. Whether by choosing more sustainable fibres, adopting new processes or taking accountability for their impact by reporting on their climate impact, the industry is waking up to the need to be more environmentally conscious.
Just after Earth Day in April 2021, WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) launched Textiles 2030, a ground-breaking initiative that brings together organisations from across the clothing and textiles sector to collaborate on climate action. With the aim of halving their carbon footprint by the end of the decade, Textiles 2030 supports businesses in transitioning to a more circular approach.
A progress report by WRAP two years later revealed that improvement actions taken by the industry had already helped reduce the carbon impact of textiles by 12% and water impact by 4% on a per tonne basis (the latter increasing to 9% in the 23-24 progress report).
Change Starts At Home
In design, waste is inevitable. But it’s what you do (or don’t do) with it that counts.
At Haines, we’ve rehomed nearly 40,000 metres of so-called ‘waste’ fabric since 2020. Surplus stock from some of the design world’s biggest names. Luxury that definitely does not belong in landfill!
Today, we have over 100 brilliant brand partners supporting our mission to reduce waste, and an engaged and growing community of customers and fans. We are so proud of our progress and continue to be as determined as ever to find a solution for textiles of any size - from discontinued rolls and offcuts, to fabric books and samples. Whether through our resale platform or a new initiative set to launch in 2026 called Haines Recycled. (More on that soon!)
Elsewhere in the interiors world, take-back schemes are on the rise, with leading designer brands including Christopher Farr Cloth and Pierre Frey welcoming returns of fabric samples and innovative new brands providing digital sampling solutions. Sustainable pioneers like Naturalmat offer end-of-life recycling for their mattresses, and House of Hackney have even given Mother Nature herself a place on their Board.
Designing Out Waste
Circularity in design means manufacturers and retailers taking responsibility for the full lifecycle of their products.
In 2023, WRAP commissioned research to help businesses understand the active life of home textiles to inform circular business guidelines. It revealed that 330 million home textile items were sitting unused in people’s homes and identified that, in comparison to clothing, a larger percentage of home textiles are put in the household waste (source).
At first glance, it may seem like this puts the onus on the consumer to change their shopping and recycling habits. But change takes time - and if it’s not happening quickly enough, we think that’s more motivation for us to accelerate our own shift in behaviour! After all, with 80% of a product’s environmental impact being determined at the design stage, we have arguably more potential to create positive change than the consumer.
‘A comprehensive circular economy approach is the only solution that can match the scale of the global textile waste problem’ Ellen Macarther Foundation.
A Brighter Future?
Textiles EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) is relatively new legislation aimed at tackling the escalating problem of textile waste by holding producers accountable for everything from the materials they use to how something can be disposed of. It is already a policy in France, the Netherlands, Hungary and Latvia, as well as California in the States. Whilst still under discussion in the UK, we are hopeful we’ll soon follow suit.
In the meantime, at Haines, we will continue to explore ways to enable, encourage and educate the consumer, whilst providing a solution for designer brands seeking to be more sustainable.
If you’re interested in learning more about the issues and initiatives mentioned in this article, please find a list of resources below.
WRAP Textiles 2030 Progress Report 22-23
