Fabric Innovations in Polyester Recycling

Did you know? It takes between 20 to 200 years to recycle polyester fabric. This sobering fact has global governments scrabbling to find methods of manufacturing material with similar properties that won’t harm the environment so drastically. That’s because polyester is a popular fabric for athleisure garments – it stretches, stays dry and is durable.

Countries are also searching for more sustainable methods of manufacturing and recycling every type of synthetic fabric. They have set stricter laws on sustainable manufacturing and waste management practices too.

Why Polyester Recycling is Important

There are many reasons it’s crucial to recycle polyester and other materials in the UK. Let’s check them out:

·      According to The Green Business Journal, only 1% of fabrics in the UK are recycled.

·      Additionally, people produce more than half a million tonnes of textile waste from polyester in the UK, the article explains.

·      Another fascinating fact: polyester is used in clothing and manufactured into containers for food and liquids. It’s also used in ‘thermoforming’, a process using heat to make a particular item more pliable and mould it into a specific shape.

·      Sadly, the worst news is that we used to have no polyester fabric recycling systems in the UK. This left us two options – incineration or ending in landfill.

·      Now we do have a recycling plant – read all about Re:claim below, a UK workwear clothes brand’s innovation.

What Recycling Polyester Will Do

1.        Recycling Polyester is Energy-Efficient

It requires less energy to recycle polyester than to produce the fabric; this makes recycling an energy-efficient alternative.

2.        Polyester Recycling Reduces Carbon Emissions

The polyester recycling process is sustainable as it reduces co2  emissions. This has a positive impact on the environment.

3.        This Recycling Process Consumes Less Energy

When you recycle polyester, less energy is used in the process. This is a sustainable method of recycling compared to other textile recycling processes.

You can read our guide to recycled polyester here!

Innovative Ways to Recycle Polyester Fabric

Let’s look at some forward-thinking methods of recycling polyester that are currently in play:

World’s First PET biorecycling plant

Last year, biochemistry startup Carbios created the first PET Depolymerisation Plant in Longlaville, France. Its recycling process enables PET plastic and textile waste to be recycled without solvents. It uses an enzyme called ‘Cutinase’ to “break down polyester material found in textile waste, including blended fabrics”. As the process is on a molecular level, the process results in virgin quality fabric that can be recycled several time and again. Brands collaborating with Carbios include PUMA and Salomon.

Local Innovations Go Way Back

In 2023, UK designer Stella McCartney partnered with the biological recycling brand Protein Evolution, taking excess cutoff polyester and nylon fabrics from McCartney’s previous collections and using ‘enzymatic technology’ to recycle these fabrics. The result is a new fibre made from this textile and plastic waste. They are currently testing how to use this fibre to make new clothing, accessories and other recyclable products for the McCartney brand.

First Polyester Recycling Plant in the UK

A collaboration between the Salvation Army Trading Company and UK workwear clothing brand Project Plan B, Project Re:claim will hopefully help solve the UK’s polyester textile waste problem. Project Re:claim has partnered with the Circular Textiles Foundation, a non-profit organization involved in creating circularity for the UK textiles industry.

The plant, in Kettering, Northamptonshire, which opened in 2024, recycles post-consumer clothing and other materials into material for the fashion and fabric industries. Its process recycles polyester fabric into rPET pellets made from textiles in a similar way to the method used to transform plastic bottles into recycled polyester fabric (rPET). “These pellets use almost 10 times less energy (11%) compared to pellets made from virgin polyester,” Re:claim explains.

Read about our maakeLess Waste Initiative here.

Brands Transforming Waste into Virgin Fibres

We’ve put together a smattering of innovative brands that are focusing on making polyester recycling more sustainable:

CuRe

Netherlands company CuRe Technology has collaborated with NHL Stenden University to create a low-energy method of endlessly recycling polyester, including bottles, carpets and clothing into quality, ready-to-use Recycled Polyester (rPET). They are sharing their knowledge with other global companies to create a positive environmental impact on fabrics.

Refiberd is a US-based business comprising a team led by women. They have found a method to transform textiles into new, reusable materials using AI, robotics and green chemical recycling. “From our deep research backgrounds in artificial intelligence and textile engineering, we believe in the power of technology to unlock a 100% circular economy,” they explain.

Sportswear brand Lululemon and Samsara Eco, a recycling textile business, have joined forces to create infinitely recycled polyester and nylon fabrics from Lululemon’s sportswear clothing. This is just one way the popular athleisure brand hopes to achieve their goal of producing 100% of their products with sustainably recycled products by 2030.

Watch out For These Important Initiatives

1.        The Full Circle Textiles Project was created in 2021 to focus on polyester chemical recycling for the fashion industry. Brands such as Adidas, Target and several others banded together with innovators, funders and supply chain partners to create an awareness of the importance of recycling polyester and foster financing in recycling polyester materials.

2.        The 2025 Recycled Polyester Challenge

Being run by the Textile Exchange, this challenge encourages businesses and design brands to choose recycled fabrics over synthetic polyester. They hope to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, plastic waste and resource consumption. The challenge is focusing on a more circular economy and to assist the fabric industry be more sustainable. This challenge had a goal of 45% of all polyester to be produced using only recycled materials by 2025. This would substantially reduce the amount of virgin polyester being created from petroleum.

While this challenge has focused on recycled polyester, the hope is that technology will be created to recycle various fibres to use in the fashion fabric industry, including blends of natural and synthetic materials.

Conclusion

Hopefully some of these innovative methods will be responsible for transforming waste into a valuable resource and lessening the fashion industry’s impact on the environment. We remain ever hopeful that the more industries and brand are aware of the sustainability problem, the more likely we are to address it and find a way to be more sustainable going forward.

To spur you on, why not read all about maake’s sustainability initiatives.