When polyester was invented, the objective was to create a sturdy and resistant material that might retain its color and form — with out wrinkles. Nearly 85 years later, polyester is in all places.
In accordance with requirements physique Textile Change, polyester is the clothes trade’s hottest material. About 49% of clothes incorporates the artificial material.
Sadly, polyester shouldn’t be biodegradable. Only one% of garments are recycled into new clothes, which means about 92 million tons of textile is wasted yearly.
That determine is predicted to exceed 134 million by the tip of the last decade, in line with a 2024 report from the Waste and Assets Motion Programme.
American enterprise tech chief IBM and French engineering firm Technip Energies have partnered as much as assist clear up this drawback. Collectively, they created Reju, a textile-to-textile recycling operation centered on polyester.
“What’s distinctive about Reju is our means to take what is without doubt one of the largest issues in society right now, which is post-consumer waste, textile waste, and take the polyester out of the waste,” Reju CEO Patrik Frisk instructed CNBC’s Converge.
“Our means is to take the polyester out after which depolymerize the polyester,” he added.
The method relies on IBM’s VolCat expertise. Brief for risky catalyst, the method makes use of a mixture of ethylene glycol and warmth to dissolve PET (polyethylene terephthalate) into molecules. The molecules can then be organized collectively once more, with the goal of making new polyester.
Reju opened its first demonstration plant, Regeneration Hub Zero, in Frankfurt, Germany in September 2024.
Funded by Technip Energies with an intitial funding of 100 million euros, the hub has the capability to supply 1,000 tons per 12 months of the model’s proprietary product, Reju Polyester.
Watch the video above to be taught extra about how these firms are working collectively, in addition to an inside take a look at Regeneration Hub Zero.
