Textile Recycling Goes To France With Circ's New $500M Facility
A rendering of the new Circ facility in France.
Circ
Circ's new $500 million facility in Saint-Avold, France, is set to become the world's first industrial-scale plant dedicated to recycling polycotton textile waste—a feat long considered impossible at scale.
'Our first full-scale facility will push circular fashion over the critical tipping point in the global economy, proving that the future of textiles can be decarbonized, closer to waste-free, and regenerative by design. It's not just a major milestone for Circ, but a breakthrough for the entire circular economy at a time when the planet urgently needs scalable climate solutions,' says Peter Majeranowski, founder of Circ.
Peter Majeranowski, founder of Circ
(c) Geoff Wood
The fashion industry is responsible for up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions—more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. Yet, less than 1% of all textiles are ever recycled back into new textiles.
At the heart of this problem is polycotton—a blend of polyester and cotton that makes up about 77% of the global textile market. Polycotton's durability and comfort have made it the backbone of modern clothing, but its mixed composition has made it nearly impossible to recycle using conventional methods. Most polycotton waste is landfilled, incinerated, or shipped overseas for disposal.
The Virginia-based company Circ, which originally launched in 2011, and has been developing a patented hydrothermal technology. This can separate polyester and cotton from polycotton blends --- without damaging either material. And that's the key. That means the polyester turns into a liquid polymer, and the cotton fibers can still be reused.
Traditional recycling methods typically can only handle pure cotton or pure polyester. But they cannot do blends. So, with Circ's tech, there is potential to close the loop and build a circular model for fashion. And they've already been testing this out at plants in Ohio and North Carolina in the States.
Although other companies have developed smaller prototypes or even led pilots on circularity, Circ's would be the first to be at an industrial scale.
'Blended textiles like polycotton are notoriously difficult to recycle because it requires a process tough enough to separate the blend but mild enough to not damage either component," iterates Majeranowski. "Recovering both components is a systems challenge that requires precision, stability, and the ability to scale. Most innovators have solved part of the puzzle, but few have cracked the full process or proven it at industrial throughput. Our success comes from years of R&D, deep industrial partnerships, and a team with over 150 years of experience scaling complex technologies.'
And they're building this new facility in France, the capital of fashion. Saint-Avold, which is located about four hours east of Paris, is a well-established industrial hub with deep roots in manufacturing and energy, explains Majeranowski. The site was selected for its strategic logistics, access to regional feedstock, competitive utility costs, skilled workforce, and strong local and regional government support.
'While our solution is designed to be globally scalable and geographically flexible, France provides a stable regulatory environment and a clear path to industrial deployment at scale,' he adds.
Here, they will process 70,000 metric tons of post-consumer and post-industrial polycotton waste each year. This commercial operation is designed to serve as a model for global expansion, with additional plants planned for North America and Asia.
The recycled output is as good as, or better than, materials made from petroleum or trees, but with a dramatically lower carbon footprint and no need for new resource extraction, he explains. Plus, they can handle any composition and color of polycotton.
'These recycled fibers are designed to be 'drop-in ready,' meaning they can seamlessly replace conventional materials in existing manufacturing processes without compromising on quality or performance," Majeranowski says.
Over the years, Circ's approach has attracted more than $100 million in funding from a variety of fashion and sustainability-minded investors, including Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Inditex (Zara), Zalando, Patagonia, and others. The company's materials are already being used by brands like Zara and Mara Hoffman, and its technology has been recognized as an Earthshot Prize finalist and a BloombergNEF Pioneer.
Alot of this fanfare and financial investment has come Circ's way because they've been able to solve one serious pain point in textile manufacturing: the polycotton blends -- a major gap in textile manufacturing. So could this be the beginning of a real transition to circularity? Majeranowski is betting on it.
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