Textile-to-textile recycled polyester is having a moment.
In November, Swedish recycler Syre announced it will become Nike’s lead strategic supplier of textile-to-textile recycled polyester in a multi-year agreement. Although the specifics haven’t been publicized, Syre’s chief commercial officer Jad Finck describes it as having “significant scale and duration”, with time frames matched up to the construction of Syre’s plant in Vietnam, slated to begin in 2027.
Nike will also source from Syre’s Canadian peer Loop Industries, which describes the brand as an “anchor customer”.
The dual announcement comes hot on the heels of Gap and Target launching partnerships with Syre in June 2025. Zara-owned Inditex signed a three-year agreement for recycled polyester with US-based textile-to-textile recycling company Ambercycle in 2023, followed by further offtake agreements by Danish fashion brand Ganni and outdoors label REI in 2025. Also this year, American company Circ launched the Fiber Club, a pre-competitive group with retailers including Bestseller and Everlane, to scale the adoption of recycled materials.
Deals are emerging as the fashion industry attempts to wean itself off plastic bottles. They currently make up 98% of all recycled polyester feedstock, according to data from global non-profit Textile Exchange, which formulates its work around a goal of 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from fiber and raw materials production by 2030.
Without contaminants such as fiber blends, zips, linings and the myriad other components that go into a garment to deal with, plastic bottles have long represented a more time and cost-efficient feedstock for recycled polyester. But they should only ever have been considered a stop gap along the road to textile-to-textile circularity, says Beth Jensen, chief impact officer at Textile Exchange.
“There’s a growing recognition of the textile waste problem. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws are coming out, not only in the EU and US states, but other jurisdictions as well, and companies are going to have to take responsibility for the waste they’re creating,” says Jensen. There are also signals coming from policymakers that bottle-based feedstocks may not be counted as a recycled material within future circular textile legislation, she continues, so the imperative for brands to get to grips with their own mountainous waste is intensifying.
A question of scale
No matter how motivated the brand or looming the legislation, the means to recycle old polyester textiles into new simply haven’t existed at the necessary scale to make a meaningful dent in that mountain.
Brands and recyclers are banking on the new crop of offtake agreements to drive sorely needed scale across the next few years. “Polyester accounts for about 22% [of the group’s overall material use, behind cotton at 55%]. Our goal is to completely phase out virgin fossil-based polyester by 2025 and only source certified recycled polyester for our products,” says Cecilia Strömblad Brännsten, H&M Group’s head of resource use and circularity. “We are gradually increasing the share of textile-to-textile recycled polyester and will continue to do so in line with availability.” Rather than wait for that availability, H&M sought to create it, co-founding Syre — which will utilize both pre and post-consumer textiles — alongside Swedish investment firm Vargas Holding in 2024, securing an offtake agreement worth $600 million over seven years.
Syre’s Finck describes the Nike deal as a “foundational offtake”. “It’s the kind of thing that we can finance a plant with and bring in a lot of customers that aren’t necessarily first movers but are fast followers when they see something this significant get commitment,” he says, adding that the industry needs to see plants going into the ground at pace on the heels of big, long-term contract announcements.
Source: https://www.vogue.com/