Recover™ Sustainability Report 2025: Circular textile progress

Recover's Sustainability Report 2025 shows how the company scaled mechanically recycled cotton across its five-hub network in 2025. It also details real progress in traceability, climate accountability and responsible sourcing.

Scaling recycled cotton through one global system

In 2025, Recover™ continued moving from geographic expansion towards consistent execution across its global platform. Its network now comprises five production hubs across Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central America, with a total annual production capacity of 84,300 metric tonnes. What makes this network work isn't just its size, it's that every hub follows the same operating standards. Common quality methods, harmonised management processes and recognised certifications help Recover™ deliver recycled cotton fiber with consistent specifications across textile-producing regions.

Recover™ also provides several entry points into the supply chain, including recycled cotton fiber and sustainable fiber blends, yarns through more than 140 spinning partners, ready-to-order fabrics and finished garments. Brands don't need to rebuild their supply chain to use it: they can plug recycled content in at whichever point makes sense for them.

Verified environmental savings for brand partners

The Sustainability Report 2025 separates the environmental savings enabled by Recover™ fiber from the footprint of Recover's own operations. That distinction matters: it keeps avoided emissions from being presented as reductions in gross Scope 1, 2 or 3 emissions, which is a mistake a lot of sustainability reporting still makes.

In 2025, Recover™ recycled cotton fiber delivered the following savings when compared to conventionnal cotton:

• 47,566 tCO₂e in Scope 3 emissions
• More than 25 billion litres of water compared with conventional cotton production

Per kilogram, Recover™ recycled cotton fiber delivers 99.9% lower water consumption, 93% lower CO₂ equivalent emissions, 96% lower energy use, 99.9% lower eutrophication and 100% lower land use than conventional cotton.

These figures aren't self-reported estimates. They come from Recover™ Life Cycle Assessments for Spain and Bangladesh, independently verified by EcoReview and developed in line with ISO 14040, ISO 14044 and PEF methodology.

A science-aligned pathway for own operations

In 2025, Recover™ became the first mechanical recycler to have its Science-Aligned Targets (SATs) validated through Cascale's Manufacturer Climate Action Program. The pathway is aligned with limiting global warming to 1.5°C and includes a commitment to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 58.8% between 2024 and 2034.

For customers, that's third-party proof, not a company promising to do better, but an independently validated target they can point to in their own Scope 3 planning and due diligence.

Traceability built into recycled cotton fiber

Textile-to-textile recycling only works at scale if brands can prove what's actually in the fiber. That's where traceability comes in, and Recover™ approaches it from three angles at once:

• GRS chain of custody: certification and transaction certificates document recycled material through the supply chain.
• Physical verification: Recover™ Tracer is embedded directly into the fiber.
• Digital traceability: a 2025 pilot with TextileGenesis™ used Fibercoin™ tokens to verify recycled cotton and cotton blends.

Recover™ is now expanding towards fiber-to-retail traceability and preparing its data for future requirements such as the Digital Product Passport.

Responsible production and sourcing in practice

Recycled fiber means little if the people producing it aren't safe or fairly treated. Recover's 2025 numbers on this front are concrete, not aspirational. Recover™ employed 304 people from close to 20 nationalities at the end of 2025. All employees participated in training, averaging 20.5 hours per person, and 100% were covered by the company's Occupational Health and Safety Management System.

The Bangladesh hub reached one million cumulative working hours without a recordable accident; a milestone that's hard to fake. The responsible sourcing programme in the country also delivered measurable progress:

• 15 textile-waste suppliers audited
• More than 50 jobs upscaled, with workers receiving identification cards
• 15 fire-safety training courses delivered
• Full payroll transparency achieved

This isn't a one-off compliance check. It's audits, training, improvement plans and ongoing dialogue, repeated.

Recover’s first voluntary ESRS-aligned report

The Sustainability Report 2025 is Recover's first reporting cycle prepared with reference to the European Sustainability Reporting Standards. Recover™ isn't currently required to report under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. It chose to anyway, adopting a simplified, gradual ESRS approach ahead of any obligation to do so.

The report is informed by a double materiality assessment covering environmental, social and governance impacts, risks and opportunities. It included feedback from 59 internal and 25 external stakeholders, with resource use and circular economy emerging as the most relevant topic.

Priorities beyond 2025

Priorities include developing the roadmap behind Recover's climate target, improving energy data, extending Life Cycle Assessments to Vietnam and El Salvador, strengthening supplier follow-up and advancing fiber-to-retail traceability. The numbers in this report are solid. The harder work now is proving they hold up as Recover™ keeps growing: hub by hub, audit by audit.

Frequently asked questions

What does Recover's Sustainability Report 2025 cover?

It covers Recover's environmental, social and governance performance for 2025: product-level environmental savings, operational emissions, traceability, workforce data, responsible sourcing, business conduct and what's still to come. It's also the company's first attempt at reporting with reference to the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, done voluntarily.

How are the environmental savings of Recover™ fiber calculated?

Through cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Assessments comparing Recover's recycled cotton fiber against conventional cotton, run separately for Spain and Bangladesh. Both were independently verified and follow ISO 14040, ISO 14044 and PEF methodology. And the savings are kept separate from Recover's own operational emissions inventory, not folded into it.

How does Recover™ verify recycled content?

Three ways at once: GRS chain-of-custody, a physical tracer embedded in the fiber itself, and the possibility to connect data with digital traceability platforms, such as TextileGenesis™. Brands get documentary, physical and digital evidence to back up recycled-content claims.

Is Recover's Sustainability Report aligned with ESRS?

It's prepared voluntarily with reference to the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, using a simplified approach appropriate for a first-time reporter. Material topics came out of a double materiality assessment, and where data isn't available yet, the report says so -flagged as gaps to close in future cycles rather than glossed over.

Read the full Sustainability Report 2025

Explore the complete data, methodology and progress behind Recover's work to scale mechanically recycled cotton.