Source: Good Men Project
Within this distribution warehouse located in the port of Sundsvall, approximately four hours from Stockholm, a quiet revolution in recycling is taking place, as reported by Reasons to be Cheerful. At the nearby facility, the Swedish company Circulose processes discarded textiles to create a material that can be used to manufacture brand new clothing—ushering in a new era for the fashion industry.
To create this material, also known as Circulose, machines the size of houses shred old garments in a repurposed paper factory. The shredded pieces are further broken down and bleached using chlorine and ozone. A lye solution dissolves zippers and buttons, while the plastic content is extracted from the raw material. Subsequently, other machines press and dry the pulp into mats, which can then be spun into fibers for new textiles, resulting in the production of a fresh jacket, blouse, or pair of pants.
Each year, around 60,000 tons of textile pulp can be generated in Sundsvall, sufficient for approximately 150 million new t-shirts. According to Circulose, no other company produces such material at scale from 100% textile waste utilizing a closed-loop, chemical recycling process.
This innovation is crucial for the industry. Over the past two decades, global textile fiber production has nearly doubled to 120 million tons annually, with experts forecasting an increase to 160 million tons by 2030. A significant portion of this production ends up in landfills after just a few uses, as fast fashion continues to churn out low-cost clothing that hardly seems worth laundering.
Last year, over five million tons of textiles were discarded in the European Union—averaging 26 pounds per person. In the United States, the average individual accounts for nearly three times that amount—about 70 pounds annually, with only 15% being resold or recycled. The remaining 85% is either sent to landfills or incinerated. These statistics are from 2018 and have likely increased since then.
The environmental and climate consequences are vast. From the Atacama Desert in Chile to the beaches near Accra, Ghana, mountains of textile waste continue to rise each year.
Fashion’s Recycling Revolution in Sustainable Textiles
According to the European Environment Agency, the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The production of textiles consumes immense amounts of water, cotton, wood, fertilizer, and petroleum-based plastics, contributing to deforestation and agricultural waste.
This research has led to the creation of the startup Eeden, which employs chemical recycling to decompose polyester into its fundamental components while extracting cellulose from cotton. A pilot plant is planned for 2025. In northern Germany, the established recycling specialist Rittec has developed its own technique for removing polyester from blended fabrics. Meanwhile, the French company Carbios is engaged in fiber-to-fiber recycling of polyester using enzymes. Notably, many of these processes focus on polyester, which at 55 million tons per year, has become the predominant raw material in textile production—over twice as common as cotton.
Startups are emerging across Europe, including the Dutch company Circularity, whose recycled t-shirts are worn by police in Berlin and employees of a major mobile phone provider in the Netherlands. However, larger players in the textile and chemical industries are also stepping in. In early 2024, the German company BASF partnered with fashion giant Inditex to introduce a nylon material recycled from textile waste, with Inditex subsidiary Zara already selling jackets made entirely from this material.
Syre plans to launch a pilot plant in North Carolina this year, with intentions to build two facilities capable of producing 250,000 tons each near major textile production hubs in Vietnam and Spain by 2027.
The story of Circulose, formerly known as Renewcell, illustrates that a well-functioning process does not guarantee success. The Swedes invested nearly a decade developing their technique at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm before launching a pilot plant in 2019, followed by a large factory in Sundsvall three years later. Their clients and partners included leading industry names like Zara, Massimo Dutti, Levi’s, and H&M, who were also significant shareholders. However, the factory never reached its capacity of 60,000 tons of pulp, producing only 18,000 tons in 2023 and just 174 tons in January 2024. The company filed for insolvency in February, and in June, the Swedish investor Altor acquired the remaining assets.
These challenges arise from several factors. The material produced by Circulose is over one-third more expensive than other raw materials used in textile production, such as cotton, polyester, or cellulose. Additionally, many global manufacturers remain reluctant to incorporate recycled textiles into their production lines, often waiting to see if regulations will mandate such changes.
