HERZOGENAURACH, Germany — Sports company PUMA is part of the multi-brand consortium which unveiled the world’s first piece of clothing made entirely from textile waste by using a new biorecycling technology developed by French company . The project created a plain white T-shirt, which was made from mixed and colored textile waste. By using CARBIOS’ biorecycling technology, the polyester was broken down using enzymes into its fundamental building blocks to produce biorecycled polyester.
The quality of the recycled textiles is on par with oil-based virgin polyester. “PUMA’s wish is to have 100% of our polyester coming from textile waste. Today’s announcement is an important milestone towards achieving this and making our industry more circular,” said Anne-Laure Descours, Chief Sourcing Officer at PUMA.
“We now need to work together to make sure we can scale up this technology to make the largest possible impact. We’re excited to be part of this breakthrough and setting new standards for fibre-to-fibre recycling.” The aim of the consortium is to collectively advance the textile industry’s shift towards a circular economy by developing and industrializing CARBIOS’ enzymatic depolymerization technology to achieve 100% “fibre-to-fibre” recycling.
By doing so, petroleum can be replaced by textile waste as a raw material to produce polyester textiles. These textiles can once again become raw materials, thus fueling a circular economy with the added benefit.
