AMSTERDAM – A new project led by Fashion for Good will aim to validate and scale promising technologies in polyester textile chemical recycling opportunities in the fashion industry. The ‘Full Circle Textiles Project: Polyester’ brings together a consortium of stakeholders including brands, innovators, supply chain partners and funders. These include Laudes Foundation, brand partners Adidas, Bestseller, C&A, PVH Corp, Target and Zalando, and affiliate partners Arvind Limited, Fabrics Division of W Gore & Associates and Teijin Frontier, which has recently joined Fashion for Good.
To gain an clear idea of the innovations best positioned to address the challenges of recycling polyester textiles, Fashion for Good has enlisted promising innovators in polyester chemical recycling from around the world to participate in the project.
These include CuRe Technology, Garbo, gr3n and PerPETual who over the course of the 18-month project will be producing chemically recycled polyester for eventual use in fabric and garment production from post-consumer textile waste. The output will be assessed and validated by participating Fashion for Good brand and supply chain partners.
The project aims to validate the technologies and the scaling potential, prompting further implementation/offtake agreements to drive chemical recycling in the industry and mobilise more funding into the technology.
Previously, the Full Circle Textiles Project, launched in September 2020, focused on investigating economically viable and scalable solutions for cellulosic chemical recycling and to produce new man-made cellulosic fibres and eventual garments from cotton and cotton-blend textile waste. Having successfully accomplished this objective, the Full Circle Textiles Project further validates the benefit of the consortium structure in scaling disruptive innovation in the industry, and the capability of chemical recycling to accelerate circularity.
The four selected innovators, Circ, EVRNU, Infinited Fiber Company and Renewcell, were able to validate their disruptive technologies and produce garments for brand partners PVH Corp and Kering Group to their quality specifications. The next phase of the project focuses on scaling these solutions and encourages brands, innovators and supply chain partners to collaborate in creating long-term partnerships, leverage funding to enable scaling, and utilise industry expertise to further develop and implement these technologies.
To further support the development of the infrastructure necessary to scale textile recycling, Fashion for Good initiated the Sorting for Circularity Project and Sorting for Circularity India Project, industry-wide, pre-competitive projects that aim to create a greater link between textile sorters and textile recyclers, stimulating a recycling market for unwanted textiles.
