The US company Circ is the only textile-to-textile recycler that can process polycotton blends. Both polyester and cellulose are completely recovered for reuse. Now Circ is cooperating with the Swedish H&M Group.
As part of this collaboration, H&M will for the first time include Circ’s recycled fibers from polycotton textile waste in its product offering. The first products will come onto the market in autumn/winter 2025. This includes a women’s V-neck fleece sweatshirt made from Circ polyester.
Circ recycled PET chips for this product. These were processed into polyester staple fibers by Palmetto and then knitted into fabric by Fakir Knitwear.
The partnership will expand in Spring/Summer 2026 with men’s denim made with Refribra technology. This is the first time that Circ’s recycled pulp is delivered via the global supply chain of the Austrian fiber manufacturer Lenzing in the form of Tencel | Circ marketed with Refribra technology. This technology uses textile waste as raw material, in addition to wood sources from certified or controlled origins, giving waste a new life.
As part of the partnership, Tencel I Circ branded lyocell fiber will be made from 30 percent Circ pulp from recycled textile waste using Refribra technology. This shows how existing fiber platforms can be used to enable circular economies at scale.
Cecilia Strömblad Brännsten, Head of Resource Utilization and Circular Economy at H&M Group, said in a statement: “Working with key partners on projects like Circ is essential to our vision: we want to grow our business independent of resource use and extraction, while keeping products and materials in circulation at their highest value.”
This global launch builds on the global Switch2CE program led by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). It also follows on from a two-year pilot project with Intellecap and the H&M Group. In this project, Circ tested its recycling technology with H&M Group suppliers in Bangladesh and successfully recycled 2.6 tons of polycotton waste into Circ Lyocell and Circ Polyester.
Peter Majeranowski, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Circ, added: “H&M Group brings global fashion scale and Lenzing brings decades of fiber expertise. Together they provide the infrastructure required to make circular fashion commercially viable.
Samples of the collaboration garments will be on display at the Textile Exchange Conference 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal until October 17th.
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