International Cooperation Completed a Recycling Loop for Polyester Textiles
Three partners – Axens, IFPEN and JEPLAN – were successful to produce the base monomer of a 100 percent recycled polyester. For this purpose, several tens of tons of post-consumer, polyester-rich, European textile wastes, sorted and prepared in France, have been processed in the companies’ semi-industrial demonstration unit, located in Japan. As underlined, this step would pave the way for circular polyester loops regarding the textile industry, in particular sportswear, home furnishings and the luxury sector.
According to Axens, IFPEN and JEPLAN, the companies used their Rewind PET technology. The test was carried out in their semi-industrial unit (capacity 1,000 ton/year) operated by JEPLAN in Japan. Several tens of tons of the base monomer of polyester, BHET, have been produced and will be converted into polyester yarns, fabrics and garments.
A new step towards closed textile loop
“This industrial textile-to-textile recycling test of several tons of post-consumer PET is one of the first of its kind under representative industrial conditions,” the press release said. “It paves the way for large-scale industrial chemical recycling of textile polyester, offering textile stakeholders a building block that can be integrated into a global strategy across the entire value chain committed to reduction, reuse, and textile recycling.” This process could be installed at industrial sites around the world that produce polyester for the textile industry, thereby enabling the substitution of fossil-based raw materials with their recycled equivalents. “The technology, already proven and commercialized for recycling all PET packaging, including food-contact applications, is now validated for textile use under an exclusive license granted by IFPEN/JEPLAN to Axens worldwide to any industrial player wishing to develop local or regional textile-to-textile loops.”
axens.net
ifpenergiesnouvelles.com
jeplan.co.jp
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 2/2026, Page 9)
