The fashion industry produces a staggering 92 million tonnes of textile waste each year — three times the annual waste generated by Canada. This crisis has caught the attention of global regulators and placed intense pressure on brands to pivot toward more sustainable practices. Yet despite bold pledges and mounting scrutiny, textile-to-textile recycling remains largely aspirational, hindered by technological gaps and weak infrastructure. As the sector eyes chemical recycling as a potential solution, understanding the current limitations and future opportunities is essential for executives navigating the path toward a truly circular fashion economy.
The Infrastructure Gap Undermining Recycling Ambitions
At present, only a fraction of textiles are recycled into new garments. Mechanical recycling, the dominant method, involves shredding fabric into fibers. While cost-effective, the process degrades fiber quality, especially for cotton, which can generally be recycled only once. Polyester, fashion’s most widely used fabric, melts rather than shreds, rendering mechanical recycling ineffective for synthetics.
The issue starts well before recycling. Most countries lack dedicated collection systems for textiles, and when garments are returned, manual sorting and material separation become cost-prohibitive. Add zippers, coatings, and mixed fibers to the mix, and the result is a system ill-equipped for circularity.
According to Lutz, a textile recycling expert, these barriers leave the fashion industry recycling only 1% or less of cotton textiles, and the recycled polyester market largely comprises plastic bottles, not old garments.
Chemical Recycling: Unlocking Circular Potential
Chemical recycling, though nascent, offers a pathway to high-quality textile reuse by breaking down fabrics into molecular components. The sector is divided between cotton and polyester recyclers, with only a few capable of handling blended fabrics — a key technical challenge in scaling circular solutions.
One of the pioneers in industrial-scale cotton recycling was Renewcell, whose Circulose product showed promise before the company faced financial setbacks. Cotton chemical recycling typically uses acids or enzymes to break fiber bonds, creating recycled cellulose pulp usable for viscose or lyocell production — mirroring virgin cellulose from trees.
Polyester recycling presents steeper technical challenges. The process, known as depolymerisation, demands high energy inputs to reverse the stable chemical bonds that give polyester its durability.
Hydrolysis, Glycolysis, and Methanolysis
Several chemical approaches are being explored:
Hydrolysis, used by firms like Circ and Carbios, applies high-temperature water to break down polyester into terephthalic acid (TPA). Although water is a cheap solvent, the process is energy-intensive and yields impure outputs that require further purification. Carbios improves cleanliness through enzyme-assisted recycling — a method praised for its low toxicity, though slower and more expensive.
Glycolysis, employed by Syre and H&M-backed recyclers, uses alcohol (glycol) to extract BHET, a monomer used in polyester production. While less energy-demanding, BHET’s high solubility complicates purification, lowering material yield.
Methanolysis, adopted by Eastman, provides cleaner, scalable outputs, breaking down polyester into dimethyl terephthalate before converting it to TPA. Though effective, the extra step adds cost and complexity.
Meeting Demand Requires More Than Technology
Even as companies like Zara, H&M, and Puma set targets for increasing recycled content, scaling recycling to meet that demand requires more than innovation. It calls for robust infrastructure, standardized processes, and trusted data systems to validate sustainability claims.
Experts warn that not all recycling is created equal. Without clear benchmarks, companies risk adopting processes that are more polluting than beneficial. The environmental gains of textile-to-textile recycling hinge on transparent metrics, energy-efficient techniques, and avoidance of hazardous chemicals.
That’s why industry associations like American Circular Textiles emphasize the need for systems that treat textiles as durable assets rather than disposable goods. They advocate for closed-loop systems, collaborative R&D, and stronger data-backed accountability.
Conclusion
The path to circular fashion is clear but far from simple. As the climate crisis intensifies and waste volumes surge, business as usual is no longer an option. Chemical recycling holds real promise — but only if implemented with the right safeguards, infrastructure, and shared standards. For executives, the imperative is to invest wisely, partner transparently, and integrate traceable, verified sustainability into every link of the supply chain. Those who lead this transformation will define the next era of responsible fashion.