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The Latest in Sustainable Fashion News - May 2025

  • arthursbeth
  • May 31
  • 3 min read

Big moves being made in sustainable fashion news circularity initiatives across the world throughout May - from textile sorting and recycling to booming re-sale shopping habits.



Glimpact's Global Impact Score: Clarifying and Empowering Sustainable Choices


Glimpact has introduced the Global Impact Score, a free tool enabling fashion brands to assess their products' environmental footprints across 16 indicators, including climate change and water use. This initiative is aligned with the EU's Product Environmental Footprint framework, and aids brands in meeting upcoming sustainability regulations.


This is a groundbreaking tool. Not only does it democratise global access to environmental impact assessments, is encourages and facilitates transparency and informed decision-making in product development to build an increasingly efficient and mindful processes. This can elevate new materials that can change the game, catalyse circularity systems it's a win for brands, but their customers too.


Source: ESG News



eBay's Brand New Watchlist Highlights Pre-Loved Fashion Momentum


This month, eBay released its first ever "Watchlist" report, which comes alongside the appointment of Brie Welch as resident fashion stylist, who is harnessing shopper data to deliver key insights into buying patterns for resale fashion.


Being able to quantify this data is a next step in the tangibility of second hand fashion, putting pre-owned buying on the same level as new-buy in how re-sellers can get insights and trends are identified. The more normalised, the more wide spread, and less planetary impact.


The report also reveals that nearly 40% of clothing, shoes, and accessories sold on the platform in 2024 were pre-owned. The term "vintage" was searched over 1,200 times per minute, highlighting a significant shift towards secondhand fashion.


Outlining the findings of the report, Bre Welch states that “We envision a world where circularity is the norm, making it easy for brands and consumers to engage with the circular economy. We want to both power pre-loved fashion and empower the entire circular fashion ecosystem.”


Source: eBay



Reju's Regeneration Hub One: Scaling Circularity in Textiles


Reju is set to launch "Regeneration Hub One", its first large-scale textile-to-textile recycling facility in the Netherlands. This plant aims to process up to 50,000 tonnes of recycled polyester annually, equivalent to regenerating 300 million garments. Utilising proprietary technology, Reju's process significantly reduces carbon emissions compared to virgin polyester production.


This development marks a huge step towards industrial-scale circularity in fashion, transforming textile waste into high-quality materials and setting a precedent for sustainable manufacturing practices.


Source: Reju



Levi's and United Repair Centre Partnering Up for Garment Longevity


Levi's, one of the world's largest and most renowned denim retailers, has partnered with Amsterdam's United Repair Centre to offer repair services for its denim products under the "Love.Tear.Repair" initiative. This collaboration emphasises durability and encourages consumers to extend the life of their garments


By promoting repair over replacement, this partnership fosters a culture of sustainability and challenges the throw-away fashion paradigm, setting an example of how huge global brands can redirect linear fashion consumption models to circularity.




Vinted is Now France's Leading Fashion Retailer


According to the French Fashion Institute’s latest barometer, resale platform Vinted has become the top clothing retailer in France by sales volume. With 23 million users, the platform's success reflects a growing preference for secondhand fashion among French consumers. Vinted, not yet available in Australia, is gaining huge traction across Europe and North America.


The rise of Vinted illustrates the boom in mainstream acceptance of resale platforms, signaling a transformative shift in consumer behavior towards more sustainable fashion choices, and a focus on affordability. However, affordability seems to be the main intention driver, as amongst the top five retailers were also Shein and Amazon, some of fast fashion's biggest players.




Circle-8 Powers Up AI Sorting to Streamline Textile Recycling


Circle-8 Textile Ecosystems has announced a strategic investment in AI-driven textile sorting technology, a move designed to supercharge its textile-to-textile recycling capabilities. The solution automates the complex process of identifying garment materials at end-of-life, dramatically increasing the accuracy and efficiency of sorting by fibre type and colour.


This is a critical step toward closing the loop in fashion. Manual sorting is slow, expensive, and error-prone - a key barrier to circular textile flows. By applying advanced AI and visual recognition tech, Circle-8 is helping unlock the volume and quality needed to feed true fibre-to-fibre recycling systems at scale. The result? Less waste, more usable raw materials, and a massive uplift in circular potential.


For sustainable brands, this type of innovation matters. It means future collections could be made from fully recycled materials - not just downcycled ones - while meeting traceability and regulatory benchmarks. For the industry at large, it's a powerful nudge toward building infrastructure that supports fashion’s circular future.


Automation is often critiqued in fashion, but here, it’s accelerating something regenerative - and that’s a future-forward play worth watching.




Never miss out on the latest sustainable fashion news.




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