End-of-life for branded merch
Most branded garments end up in landfill within 5 years of being given out. The branding makes them awkward to donate (people do not want a tee with someone else's logo) and the cotton-polyester blends are hard for textile recyclers to process.
We work to reduce that, but the truth is end-of-life is the hardest part of the merch supply chain to fix. This article covers what is real, what is realistic, and what is greenwash.
What is realistic today
- Cotton-only garments (100 percent organic cotton tees, totes) can be recycled by mechanical recyclers in the UK. The cotton is shredded and re-spun into low-grade yarn for industrial cloth or insulation. The branding does not have to be removed; it shreds along with the fabric. Cost: free at most council textile-recycling banks.
- Cotton-polyester blends (most hoodies and sweatshirts) are harder. Mechanical recycling produces a fibre too short to re-spin. Chemical recycling is emerging (Renewcell, Worn Again) but not at scale in the UK. For now: textile banks accept blends but they typically downcycle into industrial wiping cloth or are exported.
- Polyester-only items (fleeces, gilets) recycle into new polyester yarn through chemical recycling at a few UK facilities.
Norma's take-back programme (in development)
We are building a take-back programme for tees and hoodies produced for B2B workspaces. The plan: a workspace ships eligible garments back at the end of a programme, and we route them to a UK mechanical recycler who downcycles them into industrial cloth or insulation. We expect to publish the return path, including eligibility and any shipping costs, within the first 12 months of operation.
Until then, the best route for items at end of life is the standard UK household textile or paper recycling streams described above.
This will not be closed-loop recycling. The fibre does not come back as new tees. It does keep the garment out of landfill.
What you can do
If you receive a branded garment you do not wear:
- Take it to a council textile bank. Most council clothes banks accept branded items. The garment is sorted and either re-sold for industrial wiping cloth (cotton) or exported (most other fibres).
- Cut and re-purpose. Tees and hoodies make good cleaning rags or workshop cloths.
- Pass to a friend. Branding aside, a good 220 gsm tee has plenty of wear left.
What we will not say
- We will not say "this product is fully recyclable" unless it goes back through a closed-loop programme.
- We will not say "carbon neutral" without an underlying offsetting source and methodology.
- We will not claim a product is sustainable because it has a single recycled component.
Where a claim does not hold up against a third-party standard, we leave the claim off the page.
Future work
We are tracking three things:
- Renewcell-style chemical recycling at UK scale. Once it lands at 1,000-tonne capacity, we can route blends to closed-loop.
- Mono-material hoodies. 100 percent cotton hoodies (no polyester for stretch) recycle the same as tees. We are testing two SKUs for 2027.
- Repair, not replace. A simple repair offer (free patching on Norma garments returned within 2 years) is in scope for 2027.