Europe needs a polyester recycling reality check

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Europe’s regulators and investors are betting big on textile‑to‑textile recycling, but against the vast, integrated polyester complexes of Asia, fragmented capacity means EU efforts risk becoming a high‑cost sideshow 

Recycled polyester yarns on spools
Offtake agreements may provide demand stability, but their durability is contingent.

There is a point in every industrial transition when the narrative begins to stabilise faster than the underlying structure. The pieces appear to fit. The logic holds together. The narrative is sufficiently compelling that the instinct to interrogate its foundations weakens, replaced by the more comfortable work of execution.

Europe’s textile-to-textile recycling ambition has arrived at precisely that moment.

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