Report urges policy action on polyester recycling

Europe could reach a tipping point for textile-to-textile recycling of post-consumer polyester waste where recycling polyester through depolymerisation becomes more competitive than producing virgin polyester from fossil fuels, new research suggests.

The report from sustainability consultancy Systemiq, ‘The Textile Recycling Breakthrough: Why policy must lead the scale-up of polyester recycling in Europe’, also suggests that if policymakers and brands act now to unlock investment, infrastructure and long-term demand, depolymerisation output could grow nearly tenfold, from around 30,000 to 300,000 tonnes per year by 2035