The United Arab Emirates has unveiled a sweeping national program aimed at transforming how the country handles its enormous textile waste challenge, as officials seek to prove whether a nation synonymous with shopping centers and rapid consumption can build a functioning circular clothing system.
The program, called Naseej or the National Initiative for Textile Circularity, was established following directives from President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The effort comes as the UAE produces an estimated 220,000 metric tons of textile waste annually. Officials hope to establish a comprehensive national framework for gathering, reusing, recycling, and minimizing textile waste by connecting government departments, companies, researchers, recyclers, community groups, and shoppers.
Systems designed for circular textiles work to maintain clothing and materials in active use as long as feasible through reselling, repairing, redistributing, upgrading, recycling, and waste reduction.
While that objective sounds straightforward, implementing it proves far more complex. Throughout the UAE’s sustainable fashion and textile recovery network, business leaders and advocates generally praise Naseej as a significant national initiative. However, they caution that recycling by itself cannot resolve the issue unless the nation establishes convenient collection networks, promotes reselling and repair services, curtails excessive consumption, and develops domestic capabilities to process materials that currently have limited disposal alternatives.
Yet, information made public thus far leaves major uncertainties unresolved: whether Naseej will result in permanent community collection locations, mandatory goals, brand responsibilities, sustained funding, enforcement tools, or industrial-scale recycling plants.
Naseej unites the National Projects Office, the Ministry of Economy and Tourism, Emirates Foundation, Tadweer Group, researchers, companies, and community partners to address collection, recycling, consumer patterns, regulation, and circular business approaches. In concrete terms, the program is anticipated to support national initiatives, enhance collection and recycling infrastructure, advance trial projects, and help establish markets for circular textile solutions.
Development of the program started during COP28 and included agreements with partners throughout the textile industry, including fashion companies, manufacturers, recyclers, research organizations, and community groups. Its initial public event, “The Fabric of Possibility,” is planned for June 5 to 7 at Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi before comparable events spread to other regions of the country.
For Jennifer Sault, founder and managing director of Thrift for Good, the emergency is already apparent in the amount of unwanted clothing flowing through the UAE.
“An estimated 220,000 [metric] tons of clothing is going into landfill currently in the UAE. This is by a recent report that just came out on Naseej, the National Initiative for Textile Circularity,” Sault told The Media Line.
Sault explained that fast fashion has worsened the issue by promoting increased production and making clothing simpler to treat as throwaway. According to the UN Environment Programme, 92 million metric tons of textile waste are generated worldwide annually. The organization has also referenced Ellen MacArthur Foundation research showing that clothing production increased twofold from 2000 to 2015, while garment usage duration decreased by 36%.
“Clothing sustainability has become a growing concern, not just in the UAE, but globally, as producers and consumers shift more to fast fashion,” Sault said.
The environmental issue, she explained, involves not only the amount of thrown-away clothing but also the materials used to make that clothing. Man-made materials like polyester come from fossil fuels, release microplastics, and can remain in the environment for decades or more, depending on circumstances. The European Parliament has referenced estimates that textile manufacturing accounts for roughly 20% of global clean water contamination, primarily from dyeing processes.
“What’s more disturbing is that clothing is being produced much more cheaply, which means that the resources that go into it are not as good for the environment,” Sault said.
She expressed worry about microplastics and chemical exposure.
“Plastics are leaching off into waterways in our systems, into our food chains,” she said. “So it’s not just the environment, but our health as well.”
The difficulty, those active in the industry explained, is that collection and recycling infrastructure have not matched consumption levels. Sault noted that Thrift for Good has developed an approach that maintains nearly all clothing it obtains in circulation through reselling, repairing, redistributing, stain removal, redesigning, upgrading, or recycling. However, the organization’s scope is minimal compared with the nationwide challenge.
“We have figured out how to be 99% circular with our clothing,” she said.
Nevertheless, she noted, the country lacks systems for many materials other than cotton.
“The cottons we can do here in the UAE, Landmark Recycling Center, does a great job and has a fair amount of capacity to take this,” Sault said. “But there’s still no system in the UAE for anything that’s not cotton. So polyester blends, other materials, those that are greatly soiled, shoes, bags, accessories, etc.”
That constraint reflects a broader worldwide challenge. Textile recycling proves technically challenging because many garments consist of mixed fabrics, which must be sorted and separated before their fibers can be reused. A cotton shirt, a polyester dress, and a mixed-fiber garment may each need different sorting, processing, and end markets. Recycling facilities also frequently demand strict fiber quality standards, and collection systems remain fragmented even in nations with sophisticated waste infrastructure.
Sault reported that Thrift for Good handles approximately 12 tons of clothing monthly. About one ton enters recycling, and roughly 400 kilograms will likely end up in landfills.
“We’re quite small in terms of the scale of what’s needed in the UAE,” she said. “We’re just a scratch on the tip of an iceberg.”
Circular fashion systems require investment before they minimize waste. Collection, sorting, transport, storage, repair, quality control, fiber separation, recycling technology, and markets for recovered materials all need funding. If resale profits are narrow and recycling cannot cover its costs, circularity can become reliant on subsidies, charity, or policy action.
Muhammad Virji, director of Universal Clothing and founder of Fashion Rerun and Efaar, praised Naseej as progress toward a more structured circular textile industry.
“It is an important step toward building a stronger circular textile industry and encouraging more sustainable use of clothing and textiles across the country,” Virji told The Media Line.
Virji’s efforts concentrate on the worth that continues in clothing after its initial use. He explained that discarded garments should not be automatically considered waste when they can still be reused, resold, upcycled, recycled, or sorted for different purposes.
“Many clothes and textiles still have value after their first use,” he said.
The practical obstacles, he explained, are awareness, convenience, and collection. Many shoppers may wish to make better decisions but do not know where to bring unwanted clothing or what occurs after they get rid of it.
“Making collection and recycling easier can help increase participation,” he said.
Virji noted that responsibility must be distributed among consumers, retailers, brands, policymakers, recyclers, and reuse companies. Consumers can maintain garments and use resale or recycling alternatives. Retailers and brands can educate customers and support circular programs. Government can connect partners and help establish the systems that allow those efforts to expand.
The UAE already has companies and community groups operating in resale, upcycling, recycling, sorting, and textile recovery, he explained. The following step involves linking them into a larger network.
“The opportunity now is to continue connecting these efforts so more textiles stay in use for longer,” Virji said.
His companies function across different phases of that network. Universal Clothing sorts and grades textiles so they can be directed to suitable uses. Fashion Rerun concentrates on resale. Efaar transforms existing textiles into new products through reworking and upcycling.
Araceli Gallego, founder of GoShopia.com and Fashion Revolution UAE country coordinator, described Naseej as a positive development because it acknowledges textile waste as a national concern. But she noted that circular fashion’s success will depend on whether the program moves beyond recycling and supports the community-level work that modifies behavior.
“The launch of Naseej is a very positive step for the UAE and an important recognition of the need to address textile waste at a national level,” Gallego told The Media Line. “At Fashion Revolution UAE, we believe circularity goes far beyond recycling.”
Gallego explained that Fashion Revolution UAE operates through clothes swaps, repair and mending sessions, styling masterclasses, workshops, and community events. The objective, she noted, is to extend garment lifespan and keep textiles out of landfills while providing consumers practical alternatives to purchasing new items.
“We also work closely with sustainable fashion designers, upcyclers, thrift shops, and stylists to promote more conscious ways of producing and consuming fashion,” she said.
Community programs remain small, but Gallego noted they are helping establish a culture around repair, reuse, and sustainable design. Each April, Fashion Revolution UAE conducts Fashion Revolution Week. In May, the group participated in Rooted at Alserkal Avenue, a community-led cultural program that combined art, creativity, and sustainable fashion through exhibitions, talks, and workshops.
“The UAE has a small but growing ecosystem of people and organizations contributing to textile circularity,” she said.
That challenge becomes more acute due to the UAE’s retail approach. The country’s malls make fast fashion highly visible, convenient, and accessible, while sustainable labels frequently lack comparable reach. High retail costs can favor large brands, keeping smaller sustainable businesses outside prime shopping areas.
“The UAE is home to some of the world’s most impressive malls, making fast fashion incredibly convenient and accessible,” Gallego said. “However, high retail rents often mean that only large brands can secure space, leaving many sustainable labels without a presence in these prime locations.”
Repair, resale, rental, and upcycling are growing, she noted, but they still lack the scale and convenience of purchasing something new.
The fast-fashion issue, the interviewees explained, is not whether people should stop enjoying clothing, but whether the system can make better choices simpler. Price, convenience, variety, climate, children outgrowing clothing, and limited access to affordable, sustainable alternatives all help explain why consumers continue purchasing fast fashion even when they understand the environmental costs.
That market reality is not exclusive to the UAE. Fast fashion remains dominant not simply because consumers ignore sustainability concerns, but because it offers price, access, variety, and convenience. Kristen Classi-Zummo, an apparel industry analyst at Circana, made a similar point in comments to The Washington Post about fast fashion and sustainability. Consumers often care about environmental benefits when other factors are equal, she noted, but a large price gap or lack of convenience can quickly change the decision.
“If they’re then seeing a big price difference or it is not convenient, then they won’t buy,” Classi-Zummo told the newspaper.
Gallego noted that consumers should be encouraged to purchase fewer but higher-quality items, extend garment life, support responsible brands, and make resale and repair part of ordinary shopping behavior.
“The solution is not necessarily to stop people from enjoying fashion, but to encourage more conscious consumption,” she said.
Virji described the same concept as product life extension.
“The focus should be on extending the life of clothing,” he said. “Supporting collection, resale, reuse, upcycling, and recycling helps ensure garments stay in use for longer and reduces unnecessary waste.”
Sault noted that consumers have influence through daily purchasing decisions, but she also emphasized that companies and policymakers must act where market incentives fall short.
“I truly believe that our dollar is our vote for the world we want to live in,” she said. “The companies we support are the legacies that we fuel and build.”
Government has a function, Sault explained, because recycling frequently does not cover its costs and cheaper products can push out more ethical alternatives.
“Companies, of course, should be responsible. They should offer fair, equitable products,” Sault said. “And policymakers, I think, have the responsibility to protect against consumers just going for the cheapest prices, and protect that there has to be a bare minimum of ethics in the products that we have available.”
Sault noted that fabric recycling is technically feasible but requires public support, financing, and systems that make economic sense.
“But recycling, it doesn’t really pay,” she said. “So I think there’s also a lot of space for governments to foster innovation, to fund recycling, to set up systems that make sense, to curb clothing from landfill long-term.”
Naseej appears designed to address some of these gaps by placing policy, research, collection, public outreach, and business innovation within one national framework. The more difficult test will be whether that framework becomes visible in daily life: collection points in neighborhoods, repair and resale options that can compete with malls, sorting facilities that can handle mixed textiles, and recycling capacity that extends beyond cotton.
Collectively, the interviewees noted that progress will depend less on slogans than on infrastructure: neighborhood collection points, sorting facilities, non-cotton recycling capacity, repair and resale options, and markets for recovered materials. Sault pointed to the need for recycling centers for non-cotton fabrics, shoes, and bags. Virji noted that success should be measured by how many textiles remain in circulation. Gallego emphasized that the first goal should be preventing waste before it is created.
Gallego also warned against depending on exports as a convenient outlet for unwanted clothing.
“Shipping waste elsewhere simply shifts the problem rather than addressing it,” Gallego said. “Instead, we should focus on building local capacity to manage, recover, and reduce the waste we generate within the UAE.”
Gallego noted that no single organization can solve a waste problem of this magnitude.
“We need collaboration between government entities, brands, retailers, recyclers, charities, educational institutions, communities, cultural organizations, and consumers,” she said. “In my humble opinion, the most successful solutions will be those that combine infrastructure, education, innovation, and community engagement.”
Virji described the same challenge as a value-chain problem.
“Strong partnerships are essential across the textile value chain,” he said. “Government provides leadership, private companies contribute expertise and infrastructure, community organizations support collection and awareness, and consumers participate.”
The UAE’s textile waste problem reflects a broader global contradiction. Fashion remains a major cultural and economic force, but its current consumption model produces waste that is increasingly difficult to ignore. Naseej gives the UAE a national platform to address that contradiction. The work of local actors such as Thrift for Good, Universal Clothing, Fashion Rerun, Efaar, GoShopia.com, and Fashion Revolution UAE shows that pieces of the circular model already exist.
The question now is whether those pieces can be connected, scaled, and made convenient enough to move circular fashion beyond committed consumers and into the habits of ordinary residents.
The next stage will show whether Naseej can turn awareness into infrastructure. Without that, Naseej risks becoming another sustainability campaign. With it, the country could move closer to a textile system in which clothing is not simply bought, worn, and forgotten, but kept in use long enough to retain its value.
