On, Patagonia, Puma, PVH, Salomon test Carbios' fibre-to-fibre recycling technology

Just over two years ago, in July 2022, the four textile and footwear brands On, Patagonia, Puma and Salomon announced that they had joined forces with French biochemical company Carbios to utilise its unique biorecycling technology for synthetic fibre recycling and to improve the recyclability and ongoing reusability of their products.

This collaboration has now borne fruit and was able to present the first garment made 100 percent from textile waste in a biological recycling process developed by Carbios: a white t-shirt created from coloured and mixed textile waste.

“This t-shirt is the first tangible result of our ‘fiber to fiber’ consortium with Carbios, overcoming textile challenges to create a garment from enzymatically recycled waste with the same quality as virgin fibres,” confirms Salomon’s chief product officer for softgoods Guillaume Meyzenq in a press release.

How does Carbios’ biorecycling techology work?

Polyester is broken down into its basic building blocks (the monomers PTA and MEG) with the help of enzymes, which are converted into biorecycled polyester. The monomers are repolymerised, spun into yarn and woven into a new fabric by external partners in the next step. “The quality of the biorecycled textiles is comparable to that of oil-based virgin polyester,” finds the consortium.

Its aim is to jointly drive forward the circular economy transformation of the textile industry and further develop Carbios' enzymatic depolymerisation technology in order to achieve 100 percent “fibre-to-fibre” recycling.

“Petroleum can now be replaced by textile waste as a raw material to produce polyester textiles, that will in turn become raw materials again, thus fuelling a circular economy, with the added benefit of a lower carbon footprint and avoidance of landfill or incineration,” states the press release.  

A “technological feat”

The partners, joined by US luxury conglomerate PVH Corp, deliberately opted for a plain white t-shirt, as this was the most convincing way of demonstrating the technological achievement that has made its production possible from mixed and coloured textile waste.

“It may look like an ordinary t-shirt, but make no mistake, the technology behind it is extraordinary! To achieve ‘fibre-to-fibre’ recycling is a technological feat,“ enthuses Carbios CEO Emannuel Ladent.  

“We know that fiber-to-fiber recycling is a crucial step to drive our industry towards circularity, which is why we have dedicated energy and investment to researching this area. Achieving the proof-of-concept and creating the first t-shirt made out of 100 percent biorecycled fibers is an important milestone,“ confirms On’s sustainability director Begüm  Kürkçü.

According to Ladent, the collaboration with the partner companies enabled Carbios to “overcome many technical hurdles” and produce the “world's first enzymatically recycled t-shirt made entirely from biologically recycled fibres”.

Which textiles were used?

The members of the textile consortium sent rolls of textile remnants and production waste to Carbios' headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, France. These included blended fabrics, including cotton or elastane, as well as various treatments (such as durable water repellent) and dyes; all materials that present a major hurdle for conventional recycling processes.

“Puma’s wish is to have 100 percent of our polyester coming from textile waste. Today’s announcement is an important milestone towards achieving this and making our industry more circular,” commented Anne-Laure Descours, chief sourcing officer at Puma.

“We now need to work together to make sure we can scale up this technology to make the largest possible impact. We’re excited to be part of this breakthrough and setting new standards for fibre-to-fibre recycling,” added Descours.

Carbios recently also entered into an industry collaboration with Norwegian company Tomra Textiles to establish an efficient recycling stream in Northern Europe, ranging from collecting, sorting and processing textile waste to recycling using Carbios' enzymatic depolymerisation technology. The first commercial plant for this technology is currently being built in Longlaville, France.

The recent development represents a milestone, as currently the majority of recycled polyester in the fashion industry is derived from PET bottles and only one percent of all fibres are recycled into new fibres. Reaching for the raw materials of another, unrelated industry such as the food industry therefore makes no sense in view of the mountains of discarded clothes that often consist of polyester and polyester-blended fabrics. Previously, recycling failed due to a lack of suitable technology, but Carbio's enzymatic depolymerisation technology makes this possible.  

In view of fashion’s increase in the use of virgin, fossil-based synthetic fibres and the growing popularity of polyester in particular, the approach taken by On, Patagonia, Puma, PVH, Salomon and Carbios seems to be the right one, at least until the polyester heap has been used up and the fashion industry has completely turned towards materials of non-fossil origin.