U.S. Textile Recycling Nearly Doubled by 2018 but the Rate Barely Moved, Arklavo Finds

Arklavo has published a free 2026 report on textile recycling in the United States. Recycled textile tonnage rose 90.2% between 2000 and 2018, faster than the waste stream itself, yet the national recycling rate climbed only 0.81 percentage points, to 14.74%, while roughly four additional tons went to landfill for every additional ton recycled. A September 2026 audit adds a finding no federal dataset covers: what a business can actually do with a box of retired, logo-printed uniforms.

WILMINGTON, Del., September 16, 2026. Arklavo today released Textile Recycling in the United States: 2026 Report, an open-access study that pairs the most recent federal textile-waste figures with an original audit of six public recycling routes. The full report, its charts and its data files are free at arklavo.com/blogs/custom-apparel-guide/textile-recycling.

The central finding is a treadmill. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency figures analyzed in the report, textile municipal solid waste grew from 9.48 million short tons in 2000 to 17.03 million in 2018, an increase of 79.6%. Recycled tonnage grew faster, from 1.32 million to 2.51 million short tons, up 90.2%. Because both grew together, the recycling share moved only from 13.92% to 14.74%. Landfill and combustion still handled a calculated 85.3% of textile waste in 2018, with 66.4% landfilled and 18.9% burned for energy.

"Recycling almost doubled and the rate went nowhere. That is the sentence every sustainability claim in apparel has to answer to," said an Arklavo spokesperson. "The report exists so a business owner can see both numbers side by side, with the year each one was measured."

The Newest National Figures Are From 2018

The report is explicit about a detail most coverage skips: the latest complete EPA textile series ends in 2018. Any page quoting a national textile recycling rate in 2026 is quoting a figure at least eight years old. The report labels every chart with the year actually measured and treats the 2018 endpoint as a baseline, not a current reading.

Four Tons to Landfill for Every Ton Recycled

Between 2000 and 2018, landfilled textile tonnage rose by 5.02 million short tons, or 79.9%, while recycled tonnage rose by 1.19 million short tons. For every additional ton recycled over those 18 years, roughly four additional tons went to landfill. The report presents the two growth curves together and states that the data identify the trend, not its causes.

Global fiber data, a separate population from U.S. municipal waste, shows a related pattern. Textile Exchange estimated that recycled-polyester production rose from roughly 8.9 million metric tonnes in 2023 to 9.3 million in 2024, while its share of all polyester fell from 12.5% to 12.0%. More recycled material was produced, and it became a smaller slice of the whole.

"A bigger recycling number and a bigger recycling share are two different facts," the spokesperson said. "Most headlines quote one and imply the other. We separated them so nobody reading this report gets misled by a single figure."

Four of Six Recycling Routes Require Confirmation Before Taking Used Work Shirts

Four of the six public textile-recycling routes reviewed on September 13, 2026 described relevant business services but required direct confirmation before accepting clean, used polyester and cotton work shirts that carry a company logo and cannot be resold with it. That is the report's original finding, and it describes the case a business faces when a uniform program is retired.

Across the six routes the audit recorded 36 classifications, and it separates used clothing from unused production scraps even where the fiber content is identical, because prior use changes what a recycler will take. The finding describes what public documents established on that date. It is not a claim that any provider rejected the shirts or that any process failed, and the full classification table is published so readers can check each case.

"Prior use changes the answer. A bag of clean cutting-room offcuts and a bag of worn, printed polos can be the same fiber and end up in completely different places," the spokesperson said. "No one had written that down for a business owner in plain language, so we did."

What the Report Contains

The report includes two practical appendices: how to identify the textiles a company actually holds, and how to choose a recycling route and track the documented outcome. A limitations section states what the data can and cannot establish. Every chart is available as a PNG and an SVG with its source data, and the report carries a suggested citation.

Where to Get the Report

The full report is free to read in its entirety at arklavo.com/blogs/custom-apparel-guide/textile-recycling. The audit matrix, the route classifications, the EPA extracts and the calculation files are available for free download from the same page, and a PDF edition is available on request through the page. Journalists and researchers may reuse the charts with attribution.

About Arklavo

Arklavo is a United States custom branded apparel company founded in 2023 and headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware. The self-funded company supplies custom polos, tees, hoodies, hats, jackets, aprons and workwear to more than 13,000 businesses across corporate, healthcare, hospitality, education, sports, trades and retail, with no minimum order, in the United States and internationally. Arklavo also publishes open-access research on the apparel industry, with every dataset and calculation released alongside each report. Learn more at arklavo.com.

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