Building a Circular Ecosystem
SHEIN has been a signatory of World Circular Textiles Day since 2022, part of a coalition of brands, suppliers and other organizations to evolve the fashion and textile industry towards full circularity by 2050.
We know that circularity can only be achieved through collaboration. That is why our approach relies on educating and involving partners across our value chain, from suppliers to employees to our customers. From raw material sourcing to waste recycling and product end-of-life management, we are exploring ways to shift our operations towards more circular systems. We are working towards measuring and minimizing textile waste within our own operations and are collaborating with industry leaders to advance a circular textile economy.
circular Products & services
We are increasing our number of products made from recycled and deadstock materials:
- We aim to transition 31% of the polyester used for SHEIN-branded products to recycled polyester by 2030
- We aim to engage the majority of SHEIN customers in circularity by 2025.
We also plan to:
- Promote resale and purchase of pre-loved SHEIN items on SHEIN Exchange, our peer-to-peer resale platform designed to help our customers engage in circularity. In 2024, we launched SHEIN Exchange in three new markets – France, the UK and Germany. With this expansion, 6.78 million new users joined SHEIN Exchange in 2024, with over 297,000 pre-owned items listed for sale by over 148,000 unique sellers.
- Promote the use of preferred materials (e.g. recycled polyester, rescued deadstock fabrics) through our evoluSHEIN by Design product initiative.
- We have also launched a partnership with Queen of Raw to rescue high-quality surplus fabrics from becoming waste and use them to build new collections.
SHEIN Exchange
We’re helping our items to get used for longer with SHEIN Exchange – an integrated peer-to-peer resale platform. Inspired by customer feedback from SHEIN’s social communities, the platform meets a need for a hassle-free marketplace where customers can buy and sell pre-owned SHEIN items, free from high platform fees.
The platform includes user-friendly features for listing pre-owned items, such as automatic pre-population of product details. SHEIN Exchange is currently available in the U.S, France, the UK, and Germany, and we are looking to expand it to other geographies.
Addressing end of life
Since 2022, we have supported efforts to tackle global textile waste management and further the development of a circular economy in textiles through the SHEIN Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Fund. Our initial grantee, the Or Foundation, has used the resources to support its continued efforts to scale activities that benefit communities in Accra, Ghana.
In 2024, we continued to support The Or Foundation’s work in Ghana, and made a grant to the UnTours Foundation to support textile waste management efforts in Cambodia. SHEIN Foundation also made a grant to the Africa Collect Textiles (ACT) Foundation to promote the donation and recycling of used textiles in Kenya and the broader African region.