Polyester

An investigation by Stand.earth Research Group (SRG) says that more than 100 fashion giants currently source many of their fabrics from fracked oil and gas in the Permian Basin in Texas. And, of the 107 petrochemical-linked brands only one has committed to phase out virgin polyester altogether, and none have explicit, time-bound targets to increase the use of recycled textile waste.

In a significant step ahead towards 100% textile circularity, French green innovation start-up, Carbios, and its five fibre-to-fibre consortium partners have come up with the world’s first enzymatically recycled polyester garment made from textile waste to spin out 100% biorecycled fibres.

Polyester, the most widely used fibre worldwide, and a key pollutant to boot, poses many systemic and tech challenges when it comes to sorting, pre-processing and recycling, says a new study by nonprofit Accelerating Circularity.

Sustainability is less of a destination and more of a journey and it is critical that stakeholders in the textile-fashion industry are honest about how they communicate their sustainability credentials to avoid greenwashing, was a thought that echoed around the sprawling grounds of the recently concluded Functional Fabric Fair at New York.

H&M Group has taken steps to scale textile-to-textile recycling. Textile as in polyester, promising a "lower impact on the planet.”

Textile-to-textile recycling of polyester as also complex clothing waste hitherto considered unsuitable for recycling could soon go mainstream.

The fashion industry shifted from the sidelines to a more prominent role in the discussions at this climate conference. Time it is also for the sector to match its green rhetoric with robust measures to decarbonise, invest in renewable energy and phase-out reliance on fossil fuels. A first person account from the COP28 event in Dubai.

Another project to find a solution for the enormous microplastic pollution caused by apparel textiles got under way last month as a consortium of universities and research institutes promises to invest 6.6 million EUR.

A study by scientists at Brunel University London is studying some microorganisms and their plastic-degrading enzymes which could be engineered to have even better activity.

Scientists at Cornell Unoversity in the US have developed a chemistry toolbox to clean up a formidable environmental foe: polyester textile waste. The concept has the potential to disrupt the textiles and apparel production business,