Circ partners Selenis to scale industrial recycling of polyester from textiles

US based textile recycling company, Circ has partnered Portalegre, Portugal-headquartered polymer producer Selenis to boost the industrial expansion of recycled polyester. The partnership involves tolling and polymerizing of thousands of metric tons of Circ polyester annually by Selenis from monomers derived from textiles at end-of-life. The partnership comes shortly after Emmanuel Macron, President, France announced plans to invest $482 million for setting up a plant based on Circ’s polycotton textile-to-textile recycling technology in France.

Using Selenis’s polymerization capacity, the plant will incorporate Circ’s recycled polyester into existing supply chains in apparel sectors such as activewear, fashion, and everyday basics. The agreement reinforces Circ’s overall dual-product strategy of recycled polyester and lyocell.

Peter Majeranowski, CEO, Circ, says, this partnership will help scale circular materials at an industrial level. Duarte Matos Gil, CEO, Selenis also opines, the collaboration will help ensure materials are reused instead of downcycled or thrown away. He urges for policy support and regulation to facilitate the scaling of textile circularity and increased investment in advanced recycling systems. 

The partnership marks another step toward a closed-loop textile recycling process becoming widely accepted in manufacturing.