Three launch partners sign up for Syre’s recycled polyester
Textile-to-textile recycling specialist Syre has announced Houdini Sportswear, Gap and retail group Target as launch partners. It said its partners would play a critical role in bringing “circular polyester” to the wider market.
Syre launched in March 2024 as a spin-off from fashion group H&M with a mission to set up textile-to-textile plants to produce what it calls circular polyester across the globe. Its claim is that polyester made in this way reduces CO2e emissions by up to 85% compared to virgin polyester.
Its first ‘blueprint’ plant is currently being established in North Carolina and will be operational in 2026.
Gap’s aim is to use 10,000 tonnes of Syre’s recycled polyester chips per year. It has said it wants to use more sustainable materials across its portfolio of brands, which include Athleta, Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic.
For its part, Houdini said its partnership with Syre would help it meet an ambition to have “a fully circular and waste-free ecosystem” in place by 2030. As part of this, textile-to-textile recycled fibres will become its primary source of polyester, it said. It has committed to sourcing 50% of its polyester from Syre for a period of three years.
Target’s aim is for all of its own-brand products to be “designed for a circular future”, but it is giving itself until 2040 to achieve this. It will use Syre’s polyester as part of this programme.
Syre chief executive, Dennis Nobelius, described these launch partners as front runners. He said all three companies understood that textile-to-textile recycled polyester will be “a scarce resource”. He said working now to secure capacity was a good move.
