Today's Edition
SARA ALZAABI (ABU DHABI)
What happens to clothes people no longer wear? That question is at the centre of Naseej, the UAE's National Textile Circularity Initiative, which concluded its first community engagement campaign at Yas Mall on Saturday.
Launched on June 1, Naseej aims to move the textile sector away from linear consumption and disposal towards a circular model that preserves resources, captures economic value and supports long-term national development. The initiative was formed through a strategic partnership between the National Projects Office, the Ministry of Economy and Tourism, the Emirates Foundation and Tadweer Group.
The three-day activation at Yas Mall, titled "The Fabric of Possibility", introduced residents and families to the scale of textile waste in the UAE and encouraged them to rethink how they buy, use and dispose of clothes.
Through interactive experiences, the campaign promotes four practical steps: buying only what is needed, reusing and repairing garments, donating items that are no longer used, and taking unwanted clothing to collection points for recycling.
Khuloud Hasan Al Nuwais, Chief Sustainability Officer at Emirates Foundation, said that the Yas Mall activation marked the "community launch" of the initiative and brought together government, the private sector and the community around a shared national goal.
"This platform brings together government, private sector and the community as a whole to work together on transforming the textile ecosystem towards a circular economy model that is more sustainable and that addresses textile waste in the UAE," she told Aletihad on the sidelines of the event.
According to Al Nuwais, the initiative was created in response to the growing challenge of textile waste, with annual volumes in the UAE estimated at about 220,000 tonnes.
Naseej responds through a structured national approach that focuses on collection and recycling systems, research and innovation, public engagement and circular economy practices.
"Buy only what they need, reuse and repair their current garments, donate textiles they are not using, and take unwanted garments to collection points so that they can be recycled," Al Nuwais explained.
The community activation will expand to other parts of the country in later phases, giving more residents the chance to understand the impact of textile waste, explore practical alternatives and take part in building a more circular textile economy.
Coupled with community-led initiatives, Naseej will also roll out national programmes to support sustainable textile practices, strengthen collection and recycling infrastructure, and advance research, pilot projects and market development initiatives for scalable circular solutions across the UAE.
According to Etienne Petit, CEO of Tadweer Group, a large share of textile waste is still disposed of through landfill, making collection and sorting central to any recycling effort. He told Aletihad that Tadweer Group's broader strategy aims to achieve "80% diversion from landfill by 2031".
To support that goal, the group is investing in new treatment facilities, waste-to-energy projects and plans to close 11 landfill sites over the next three years.
For textiles, Petit said that the priority is to build separate collection and sorting systems that allow each material to be treated properly. "Everything starts with collection," he explained. "Cotton is very easy to treat, while polyester is more complicated. The idea is to establish separate waste streams, prepare them separately, and then find the best treatment for each stream."
He added that successful textile recycling depends on keeping materials clean and separate from other forms of waste. "If textiles are mixed with food waste or other materials, they cannot be recycled. You need purity of collection to get purity of the outcome."
