Polyester

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,

India’s retail and ecommerce sectors are abuzz with what’s going to be the impact of the Reliance-Shein combine on the overall landscape, and how it is eventually going to play out. A texfash.com analysis.

A year-long collaborative engagement, orchestrated by innovation platform Fashion for Good, will see three top brands coming together to prototype Kintra Fibers’ biodegradable polyester that promises reduction of fossil fuel-based synthetics and closer to the goal to be Climate Positive by 2025.