Goodwill unveils textile circularity pilot results at Sustainability Summit

Goodwill Industries International (GII) has announced the results of a two-year pilot project to develop skills, systems and infrastructure to aggregate, sort and prepare textiles for reuse and recycling across its network.

The results of the $1.28 million textile circularity project, funded by the Walmart Foundation to turn unsellable textile donations into feedstock for textile recycling, were shared at the first-ever Goodwill Sustainability Summit, a two-day event in Washington that brought together private and nonprofit organizations, recyclers and researchers.

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At the conference, GII announced plans to conduct a traceability study, also funded by the Walmart Foundation, which will support a multistakeholder initiative to follow the global journey of secondhand textiles. GII says the $2 million study will inform reuse and recycling strategies and help shape industry standards for traceability and product lifecycle stewardship.

Goodwill says the two studies align with its network’s goals of increasing material diversion, improving accountability and transparency, maximizing the value of donations and making a positive impact on global communities.

“Goodwill is leading the charge to solve a societal problem,” says Karla Magruder, president and founder of the nonprofit Accelerating Circularity. “No other nonprofit collector has explored solutions at this scale before. The size and scale of the Goodwill network place it in a unique position to help pioneer solutions to the overproduction of textiles.”

 According to Goodwill, the textile circularity research project was launched in the summer of 2022 in partnership with Accelerating Circularity. The fiber composition of items at the end of their reusable lifespan was analyzed for use as high-value recycling feedstock. Goodwill says approximately 60 percent of the material in the study was found to be suitable for existing recycling technologies, which include cotton, polyester and cotton-poly blends.

Goodwill says the pilot involved the creation of four regional textile hubs in Canada, Michigan, the Northeast and Southeast, representing 25 local Goodwill organizations. The hubs sorted and graded post-retail textiles to identify reusable materials that could be resold, and nonreusable textiles that would be used to create feedstock that meets recyclers’ specifications.

As part of the grant, Goodwill says each of the four regional hubs developed business plans and advanced sortation models that can be replicated across the Goodwill network and adopted by other social enterprises for the advancement of textile circularity.

“We are working with a variety of partners to determine how Goodwill can best lead in the textile-to-textile recycling market and develop a number of pathways for goods to minimize waste and maximize value through reuse, remanufacturing and recycling,” says GII President and CEO Steve Preston. “Eventually, Goodwill hopes to become a preferred partner of brands, retailers, technology companies, equipment providers and government and nongovernmental organizations.”

Revenue from the sale of donated goods supports job training, job placement and other essential services for community members who face obstacles to employment, Goodwill says, adding that the value of every item donated to Goodwill stays in local communities. The organization says it is working on initiatives at the local, regional and international levels to develop additional revenue sources to fund the nonprofit’s workforce programs and services.

“Goodwill is focused on developing solutions for textiles that are scalable, circular and traceable,” GII Director of Sustainability Brittany Dickinson says. “We are committed to advancing textile circularity by ensuring that we preserve the highest value of every item entrusted to us for our planet, our communities and out people.”

The Goodwill network operates more than 3,300 stores across the U.S. and Canada, with multiple retail channels to keep products in use and out of landfills. In 2023, the organization says it recovered the value of more than 4.3 billion pounds of donated products, which supported the development of skills and training, job placement, career advancement opportunities and other community-based services for more than 1.7 million people.