Can new recycling tech help solve fashion’s polyester problem?

Statistically speaking around almost 70% of what you are wearing right now is likely to be polyester. Durable, lightweight, water- and fire-resistant and incredibly cheap, polyester has become the wonder material of the fashion industry since its discovery in 1941. But polyester comes with a heavy environmental cost — it sheds microplastics into the environment and, being hard to recycle, is filling up the world’s landfill sites.

The fashion industry is coming under increased pressure to make polyester more sustainable, especially as new regulations around extended producer responsibility (EPR) and climate targets come into force.

Many brands are exploring partnerships with startups to test out new ways to reduce the environmental footprint of polyester production, for example by replacing virgin fossil fuel-based inputs with recycled fibres sourced from post-consumer textiles. H&M, for example, has invested in Syre, a textile-to-textile polyester recycling startup, and Syre recently announced a strategic partnership with Gap, Houdini Sportswear and Target to accelerate the adoption of circular polyester in the fashion sector.

Replacing polyester

One approach is to replace polyester with other materials. Simplifyber, for example, is a US-based startup that is creating fabrics from fibres such as wood pulp or recycled fabrics. Because these can be 3D moulded into shape like plastics they can be used to make items such as trainers with no cutting, sewing or wastage. Simplifyber’s objective is to decrease the use of fossil fuel-based fabrics by replacing them with a renewable alternative.

Suzano, the Brazilian wood pulp producer invested in Simplifyber through its corporate VC arm, Suzano Ventures in April this year. Pablo Cadaval, head of Suzano Ventures, believes the startup will help Suzano move into new markets.

“This technology aims to replace fossil materials with a new bio-based material that contains eucalyptus fibres, thereby increasing our market reach – which is critical in our business,” he tells GCV.

Suzano may also be able to accelerate Simplifyber’s business, he says.

“Suzano has access to a lot of companies, technology centres and resources that might be very helpful [for Simplifyber] when it comes to speeding up the development their technology.”

Improved recycling

Another approach is to improve the process of recycling polyester so that more of it can be recovered.

“Textile recycling is one of the oldest recycling processes, but it still faces significant challenges in producing materials that match the quality of virgin materials. The two most significant obstacles to scaling textile-to-textile recycling are the labour and time-intensive nature of pre-processing and the absence of existing technologies to handle mixed feedstocks,” says Lisa Coca, climate fund partner at Toyota Ventures, the CVC arm of Japanese automotive manufacturer Toyota.

Toyota Ventures invested in recycled textiles startup Tereform, in February this year. Tereform is able to chemically process mixed textiles with minimal prior separation of the materials into individual fabric types, or removal of coatings, dyes and other contaminants — removing a highly labour-intensive step. Tereform’s solution is especially effective for recycling some of the more challenging textile substrates, such as polyester/spandex blends.

Tereform’s recycling technology results in products that can be made back into polyester as a drop-in replacement for virgin plastics in textiles and beyond. This approach enables the creation of recycled monomers from waste textiles that can be sent to existing polymer manufacturers, at a price that is similar to new plastics but with a lower footprint of greenhouse gases.

“Toyota Ventures broadly invests in technologies for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide, and we also have a sustainability lens. We have been investing in climate technologies for adaptation since 2021 having closed five investments in this space to date, including Tereform,” says Coca.

Coca believes her team can “potentially help Tereform in scoping which sectors or materials are the most interesting and feasible to explore, specifically as it relates to automotive textiles, which is a $31 billion market opportunity.”

The scaling problem

The biggest problem with innovative textile recycling startups, however, is scaling them.

“Very few recycling startups have the ability to scale into commercial ventures,” says Hee Jung, head of innovation and investment at SK discovery, the CVC arm of South Korean conglomerate SK Group.

“Having a technology work at the lab level is one thing, getting that into mass production is a whole different game. This is where a lot of startups face problems since you need a lot of different talents and expertise to help with the scaling and not many startups have that,” he says.

Jung’s team recently decided to spin off an internally built recycling technology into an independent venture in a bid to become a leader in the circular economy. The business takes plastic-based products that usually end up in landfill – such as fishing nets, banners, carpets, spandex clothing – and turns them into a monomer – a basic unit of polymer used in synthetic plastics manufacturing. The technology uses a catalyst as part of the recycling process rather than the traditional method of pyrolysis, which is energy intensive and polluting.

SK Group opted to spin out the business because, Jung says, so few other recycling startups are set up to scale effectively.

“The reason that we wanted to build this is that there is a missing component in the solutions that startups offer. They don’t have the commercial scale in mind,” Jung told GCV earlier this year. “A lot of startups are so focused and locked into their technology at the lab scale. We wanted to build with that commercial scale in mind and think about mass production from the start.”

Partnerships with corporations can help with scaling, says Jung. “That’s where the right investment from the right corporate can help give them competitive advantage,” he says.

Coca has more specific advice. “We make introductions and facilitate collaboration opportunities between startups and Toyota when it is appropriate for both parties. Examples include providing access to our technical and manufacturing experts to help the team address the challenges of scaling their technology.”

Is a full circularity possible?

A fully circular economy, where all materials are reused, is what textile recycling companies are ultimately aiming for.

For Suzano Ventures, circularity goes hand-in-hand with sustainability. “Everything that we research and bring into our business needs to be sustainable at the end of the day. It has to be biodegradable, recyclable – that’s circularity. We don’t want to invest in something that’s not going to be sustainable in the long run,” states Cadaval.

Jung is sceptical, however, about whether a fully circular economy is achievable.

“It would be a mix of circularity and virgin products. I don’t think any government will want the industry to get rid of all the virgin product producers entirely. What needs to and will change is the balance. You’ve got European governments pushing for 25-30% recycled content by 2030 and that will only keep increasing over time. And it’ll be across all industries. It’ll take time to shift towards recycle but it’ll happen – it just won’t be 100 to zero.”