ACT UK is a two-year project supported with funding from Innovate UK and led by UK Fashion and Textile association (UKFT). The project assembles a conglomerate of recycling technologies, textile collectors/sorters, academia, manufacturers, industry associations, technologists and brands/retailers.

The initiative is investigating the technology and challenges related to large-volume sorting and pre-processing of non-rewearable textiles and aims to create the blueprint for an Advanced Textile Sorting and Pre-processing (ATSP) facility that will process non-rewearable textiles and enable fibre-to-fibre recycling at a large scale. The project has recently launched two trials for post-consumer textile collection in car parks and by post mail to encourage the public to sort their used textiles into rewearable and non-rewearable categories. The trials are part of a series of experiments that will give valuable insights on how to optimise postconsumer textile collections and redefine the flows of non-rewearable textiles towards a more sustainable textile economy.

In the first experiment Individuals can donate their used textiles at 18 supermarket chain Tesco car parks and 2 Salvation Army Trading Company (SATCoL) household waste recycling centres. The donation points have separate recycling banks for rewearable and non-rewearable clothing and textiles. The second experiment is with retailer Marks & Spencer and charity Oxfam using postal donations. Customers can order an Oxfam postal bag and use a free postal service to donate both rewearable and non-rewearable clothes.