The full article is available HERE and below is the summary:
With consumers’ growing demand for sustainable apparel products, fashion companies increasingly carry clothing made from recycled textile materials and seek additional supply bases. Recycled cotton has great potential for use in garments because of the wide availability of cotton-made secondhand clothing and the perceived positive environmental impacts of effectively recycling post-consumption cotton waste.
This study explores Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia’s potential as sourcing bases for clothing made from recycled cotton. North African countries, including Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia, have a long history of making and exporting cotton and cotton-made finished garments. The “developing country” status and membership in trade agreements or trade preference programs, such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the EU-Mediterranean Association Agreement, allow apparel products from these three countries to enjoy preferential duty benefits in the world’s top import markets. Therefore, there is great potential to capitalize on recycled cotton apparel and “green exports” to further promote economic development in the region.
About 13,000 Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) of clothing items made by these three countries newly launched to the world retail market between January 2022 and April 2024 were randomly captured from fashion brands and retailers’ websites. About half of the items were made of regular cotton, and the other half explicitly mentioned using “recycled cotton” in the product label or description. The results show that:
#1: Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia have gradually expanded their clothing exports made from recycled cotton since 2022. For example, as estimated, about 1,300 SKUs of clothing using recycled cotton from these three countries were newly launched to the US and EU retail markets in 2023, a substantial increase from only 150 SKUs back in 2022 (or a sevenfold increase). Similarly, in the first four months of 2024, clothing using recycled cotton accounted for 10.2% of total cotton apparel from the three countries in the US and EU markets, a substantial increase from only 1.1% in 2022.
#2: Of the collected samples, apparel using recycled cotton from Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia was destined for as many as 49 countries, reflecting the global demand for such products. However, possibly restrained by the limited supply, the export market for clothing using recycled cotton remained less diverse than that for clothing made of regular cotton, which spanned 72 countries.
#3: Geographically, the European Union (EU) was the top clothing export market for Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia, accounting for over 75% of these countries’ export value in 2022, according to UN trade statistics (UNComtrade). This was also the case for recycled cotton products. Specifically, the EU accounted for 65% of these three countries’ total recycled cotton clothing exports measured in SKUs in the collected samples, higher than 59.4% of regular cotton clothing products.
#4: Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia focused on different product categories for clothing using recycled cotton than those made from regular cotton. Specifically, of the sampled items, clothing using recycled cotton had a notable concentration on bottoms (52.9%), followed by tops other than T-shirts (23.8%). Recycled cotton clothing also was more commonly used for outerwear (7.5%) than those using regular cotton (3.8%). In comparison, only about 7.9% of clothing using recycled cotton were T-shirts, much fewer than nearly 30% of those using regular cotton. Similarly, specific product categories, such as underwear and hosiery, rarely use recycled cotton. Likely, the concerns for quality and durability and the difficulty of absorbing higher production costs make using recycled cotton for these relatively simple categories more challenging.
#5: Even though cotton apparel made in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia already commonly mentioned their sustainability attributes (86%), phrases such as “sustainability” and “sustainable” appeared even more frequently in clothing using recycled cotton (94.6%). For example, some producers highlighted that they “worked with suppliers, workers, unions and international organizations” to ensure their recycled cotton clothing contributed to “the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.” Likewise, some labels intentionally remind consumers about the positive environmental impact of using recycled cotton, “The use of recycled cotton helps to limit the consumption of raw materials.” Another added, “The production of recycled cotton recovered cotton, mainly from the production of other garments, thus reducing the production of virgin spring and water consumption, energy and natural resources.”
Meanwhile, compared to clothing using regular cotton, those made with recycled cotton in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia reported much higher participation in certification programs, such as the Recycled Claim Standard (RCS), which verifies the recycled content and tracks it from source to final product.
#6: Reflecting the technical limitations of the fiber property, it remains rare to have clothing that is 100% made from recycled cotton. According to industry experts, longer cotton fibers generally indicate higher quality. Since the recycling process shortens cotton fibers, regular virgin cotton or other fibers like polyester are typically used alongside recycled cotton to make fabrics smoother, stronger, and more durable. For example, common labels include descriptions such as “80% virgin cotton, 20% RCS certified recycled cotton” and “55% RCS certified recycled polyester, 45% RCS certified recycled cotton.”
#7: Except for T-shirts, in most cases, clothing made from recycled cotton in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia was priced lower than their equivalent using virgin fiber in the market. This is particularly the case for the premium and luxury market segments, where clothing using recycled fiber typically was 20-30% lower priced than regular clothing. The results echo the findings of numerous studies indicating that consumers are generally unwilling to pay higher prices for recycled fiber clothing as they perceive such products as lower quality and less “valuable.” Also, more needs to be done to create more financial incentives for producers in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia to expand the production scale and increase the use of recycled cotton in their products.
By Emilie Delaye and Sheng Lu
FASH455 Global Apparel & Textile Trade and Sourcing 