Fiber recycling and the introduction of circular processes is a medium-term goal for many apparel companies, but little progress has been made in the recycling of blended fabrics such as polycotton. Polyester-cotton is one of the least sustainable fabric blends, but is valued by fast fashion companies for its low cost and durability.
Circ, a Virginia-based biofuel and textile recycling start-up, hopes to break the reliance on new polyester-cotton blends that are cheap to produce but hardly biodegradable. Polycotton also accounts for half of the world’s textile waste.
Polycotton accounts for half of the world’s textile waste
While plastic and polyester can be recycled if they are “pure” blended fabrics, fabrics blended with natural fibers like cotton are difficult to recycle without one of the fabrics degrading in the process.
Circ, which raised $30 million in a successful funding round last month, is investing in new technology to (re)capture raw materials from clothing waste. The company claims that it can completely eliminate the need for raw materials to make clothes by making new clothes solely from old garments.
The process is part recycling and part breakthrough technology, using water, pressure and responsible chemistry to recover natural materials from man-made products.
Already working with companies like Inditex and Patagonia, Circ recycles fabrics like cotton, polyester and polycotton to meet their customers’ specific product needs.
Circ’s technology aims to develop closed, certified production systems for clothing brands that are fully geared towards sustainability and circular economy, without ever having to source new raw materials. One of the company’s goals is to recycle 10 billion pieces of clothing by 2030, which is 10 percent of the global clothing market and would save more than 100 million trees.
Meet the most circular label in fashion??https://t.co/cVTPmJo31A pic.twitter.com/XmEAw0ortg
— Circ™ (@circ_earth) July 20, 2022
This translated article originally appeared on FashionUnited.uk.