Cotton Incorporated Links Back-to-School Consumer Trends to Textile Circularity
Cotton Incorporated’s latest back-to-school research points to growing consumer interest in natural fibres and circularity. Among surveyed US parents, 74% prefer cotton apparel for their children, citing comfort, breathability and softness, while 59% say they intend to avoid garments containing microplastics. At the same time, 92% plan to purchase new clothing for the 2026/27 school year, with 71% expecting to spend more as individual garment prices rise.
Against this backdrop, Cotton Incorporated is continuing to expand its “Cotton Lives On” textile recycling initiative in the UK with retail partners including Marks & Spencer, Margaret Howell, Whistles and Bianca Saunders. The programme has collected around 8,000 kg of discarded cotton, converting it into more than 100 high-density roll mats for people experiencing homelessness, with each mat using the equivalent of approximately 45 cotton T-shirts. The initiative highlights how consumer insights, retail collection networks and end-of-life applications can work together to advance textile circularity, while reinforcing the need for fashion education to address recycling infrastructure and post-consumer material recovery.
