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Full Circle Textiles Project – Polyester (FCTP-P)

Full Circle Textiles Project – Polyester (FCTP-P)

The aim of the Full Circle Textiles Project – Polyester (FCTP-P) is to validate and scale promising technologies in polyester chemical recycling and to encourage financing and offtake commitments in the fashion industry. The project builds on the framework and lessons of the Full Circle Textiles Project – Cellulosics (FCTP-C), which focused on investigating economically viable and scalable solutions for cellulosic chemical recycling. It brings together a consortium of stakeholders including brands, innovators, supply chain partners and catalytic funders – a structure that has proven successful in driving and scaling disruptive innovation in the industry. This is an ongoing project.

Problem Statement

Polyester claims 52% of the global fibre market. As the most common fibre in the world, it also represents a significant portion of the 73% of textiles that are landfilled or incinerated annually. A synthetic fibre derived from petroleum, polyester does not naturally break down in the environment, and the production of virgin fibres also perpetuates our reliance on fossil fuels. 

Textile recycling is a crucial lever in driving the fashion industry towards closed-loop production and reducing the environmental impact of textile waste. It also has the potential to eliminate the industry’s dependence on virgin raw materials.

Chemical recycling is a key solution that promises to address the polyester textile waste challenge. Chemical recycling can recycle textile waste into virgin-quality output and can address a wider range of textiles types, providing huge potential to close the loop on textile waste. A relatively nascent area of innovation, textile-to-textile chemical recycling faces significant barriers to scale; including a lack of financing for new technologies, limited brand offtake, and limited and expensive output that competes with cheaper, virgin options.

Executive Summary

The project was launched in September 2021 with catalytic funder Laudes Foundation, brand partners adidas, BESTSELLER, C&A, PVH Corp., Target and Zalando, and affiliate partners Arvind Limited, Fabrics Division of W. L. Gore & Associates and Teijin Frontier.

To attain a 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, Syre, Gr3n and BlockTexx who over the course of the project will be producing chemically recycled polyester for eventual use in fabric and garment production from post-consumer textile waste. The innovator output will be assessed and validated by participating Fashion for Good brand and supply chain partners.

Alongside the technology validation, Fashion for Good will conduct a Screening LCA for each of the innovators to assess their environmental impact across GWP, BWC and Eutrophication.

Goals of the Project

  • To understand the state of innovation in post-consumer textile to textile polyester chemical recycling of polyester by testing the outputs of the selected innovators and manufacturing demonstrator products to show the gaps and opportunities for integrating these materials in the supply chain. 

  • To validate the technologies and the scaling potential; prompting further long term commitments to drive chemical recycling in the industry and mobilise more funding into the technology.

Stakeholders Involved

Relevant Resources

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