9 October, 2026

Some sustainability challenges are simply too big for any one business to solve on its own. Circularity is one of them.

That is the thinking behind The Circuit, a new initiative from New Look, M&S, Sainsbury’s and Oxfam, designed to turn end-of-use textiles into future raw materials at an industrial scale. The project aims to build the infrastructure and commercial conditions needed for resilient circular supply chains by bringing together some of the largest fashion retailers on the UK high street, together with textile recovery partners, recyclers, manufacturers and digital platforms to transform pre-worn garments into future circular raw materials. It’s going to start as a pilot, and use the learnings to improve traceability, identify opportunities and explore different operating models.

On the surface, it looks like just another recycling scheme. But it’s more than that. Textile recycling only becomes viable at scale, which means that those businesses selling brand new items need to work together with those selling pre-loved garments, all the way through the value chain. It’s a systems challenge, not an organisational one. That’s why initiatives like The Circuit matter. Their value lies as much in the collaborations they create as in the materials they recover.

And there is nothing anti-competitive about collaborating to create shared infrastructure. Companies routinely cooperate on the foundations of a market whilst competing fiercely elsewhere. If airlines can share airports, why can’t retailers share recycling facilities? Cooperation and competition are not mutually exclusive; in many cases, they depend on one another.

The success of The Circuit remains to be seen. But it points to an important lesson for the sustainability world: the transition to a circular economy depends not just on what organisations do on their own, but on what they can achieve together.

From our perspective, the question is no longer whether collaboration and competition can co-exist, but whether businesses are willing to cooperate where it matters most. Circularity is a team sport.

By Charity Rymer