PUMA debuts world first clothing made from textile waste

Sports company PUMA is part of the multi-brand consortium that has unveiled the world’s first piece of clothing made entirely from textile waste.

Using new biorecycling technology developed by French company CARBIOS, the project created a plain white T-shirt, which was made from mixed and coloured textile waste.

The technology uses enzymes to break down polyster into its fundamental building blocks to produce biorecycled polyester.

The quality of the recycled textiles is on par with oil-based virgin polyester.

Anne-Laure Descours, Chief Sourcing Officer at PUMA, said PUMA’s wish is to have 100 per cent of its polyester coming from textile waste.

“Today’s announcement is an important milestone towards achieving this and making our industry more circular,” she said.

“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 industrialising CARBIOS’ enzymatic depolymerization technology to achieve 100 per cent ‘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 fuelling a circular economy with the added benefit of a lower carbon footprint and the avoidance of waste that ends up in landfills or incinerators.

Emmanuel Ladent, Chief Executive Officer, CARBIOS, said it may look like an ordinary T-shirt, but the technology behind it is extraordinary.

“To achieve ‘fibre-to-fibre’ recycling is a technological feat,” he said.

“CARBIOS couldn’t have done it alone, so thanks to the collaboration with our consortium partners, we have overcome many technical hurdles together to produce the world’s first enzymatically recycled T-shirt made entirely from biorecycled fibres.”

Currently, the majority of recycled polyester in the industry is made from PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, and only one per cent of fibres are recycled into new fibres.

For more information, www.puma.com