The Swedish H&M Group has founded the recycling company Syre together with the investment company Vargas Holding.
Syre is to expand textile-to-textile recycling of polyester: In the long term, production in the new company will cover a large part of the H&M Group’s recycled polyester needs, according to a statement on Wednesday. By expanding textile recycling, the group wants to distance itself from the industry standard of polyester from recycled PET bottles and move closer to a circular economy in the long term.
Syre’s production facility is located in North Carolina and is expected to be operational later this year. The company’s goal is to produce a yarn made from recycled polyester that has the same product qualities as virgin polyester, but is more environmentally friendly. The H&M Group plans to expand the company to twelve locations worldwide within ten years.
“The new Syre company is an important next step in H&M Group’s journey to integrate the circular economy into our company. With this solution to rapidly expand textile-to-textile recycling, we want to encourage and inspire other industry players to join us in order to close the material cycle and accelerate the change towards a more sustainable future,” says Daniel Ervér, CEO of the H&M Group.
According to its own information, the group of companies has concluded an offtake agreement with Syre worth a total of 600 million US dollars over a period of seven years.