A startup in Germany is developing a chemical recycling technology that aims to improve the quality and volume of recycled polyester, potentially transforming the fashion industry’s approach to sustainability.
On a recent overnight flight from New York City to Frankfurt, Germany, a journalist noted the emerging trend in sustainable materials during their journey in United Airlines’ business class. The airline’s amenities, including a polyester blanket and flight kit, claimed to be made from recycled plastic bottles. However, this reporter suggests that the industry is moving beyond the initial use of recycled bottles, spotlighting a novel chemical recycling technology being developed by a startup called Reju.
Located in an industrial park a mere half hour outside downtown Frankfurt, Reju’s installation comprises temporary offices and three partially completed buildings. The layout includes a research and development center, a depolymerization plant to break down polyester, and a repolymerization plant to reconstruct the materials, thus enabling a closed-loop recycling process.
The technology at Reju revolves around breaking down polyester, a common form of plastic used widely in textiles, into its fundamental chemical units—known as monomers—before reconstructing these units back into polyester. As the journalist, along with a group of others, donned hard hats and safety gear, they were granted access to the depolymerization facility. Inside, they observed industrial machinery where workers were engaged in various tasks, indicative of the operations that would drive this innovative recycling approach.
The fashion industry faces significant challenges in its pursuit of sustainability, with only 0.3 percent of materials in use deriving from recycled sources, primarily limited to water bottles. The current process of mechanically recycling PET plastic—the same chemical used in both bottles and polyester fibers—affords limited potential due to quality degradation during melting and re-extruding. This is compounded by the complex materials often found in old textiles, which rarely consist of pure polyester. Antoni Mairata, Reju’s chief technology officer, elaborated on this complexity, explaining that many items include a mixture of polyester, cotton, dyes, and other chemicals, complicating the recycling process.
This intricate mixture of materials not only affects the recyclability of textiles but also introduces contaminants such as plasticizers, heavy metals, and toxic substances picked up during the lifecycle of the garments. Consequently, while food-grade water bottles are recycled efficiently, outdated polyester clothing typically ends up in landfills rather than being processed into new materials.
Reju’s pioneering method aims to address these limitations by employing chemical processes that could dramatically enhance the volume and quality of recycled polyester, promoting a more sustainable fashion industry. As the conversation around environmental responsibility continues to evolve, innovations like Reju’s may reshape the landscape of textile recycling and contribute to a circular economy in fashion.
Source: Noah Wire Services
