A ‘dream' of recycling PET textiles into bottles

National Harbor, Md. — It's well understood in the recycling business that the flow of discarded PET bottles into clothing and carpeting is currently a one-way street.

PET water and soda bottles can be recycled into polyester textiles, but not the reverse. A recycling company can't take an old shirt and use it as feedstock for new bottles or thermoformed packaging.

But some see the potential of chemical recycling technologies to change that: to build a more integrated PET and polyester fabric recycling system where bottles and textiles are interchangeable as feedstock.

It could, potentially, open major new sources of raw materials for PET packaging, according to a panel at the recent Plastics Recycling Conference, held March 24-26 in National Harbor, near Washington.

"Textiles to bottles, this is the dream," said Ben Dixon, partner and head of materials and circular economy for the consultancy Systemiq, and the author of a recent report outlining a 2040 vision for significantly boosting recycling of both PET packaging and polyester clothing.

On the panel, Dixon walked through scenarios that rely heavily on the growth of chemical recycling and depolymerization technologies, as well as design changes in packaging and clothing, and big boosts in recycling and collection infrastructure.

"At the moment we don't turn our T-shirts and jackets back into bottles and thermoforms, but the technology is emerging to do that," he told the panel. "It's an important time to be having this conversation."

Systemiq's study, funded by Eastman Chemical Co. and released in November, says that building out chemical recycling and depolymerization technology could, by 2040, supply 1.5 million metric tons of new recycled PET and polyester from textiles and harder-to-recycle packaging. That's up from basically zero today.

It also calls for nearly doubling traditional mechanical recycling of PET bottles to 2.1 million metric tons by 2040.

Together, that would yield a 70 percent recycling rate for PET packaging, up from 23 percent today, and a 19 percent recycling rate for polyester textiles, up from 1 percent today, the study estimates.

But there are challenges. Beyond the significant investment needed in new technologies, Dixon noted economic headwinds.

"It's an exciting time for the industry, but at the same time, we have to recognize the challenges we've been hearing about in the last few days of this conference to do with competition from virgin material and competition from imported recycled material," Dixon said. "We have to understand both these headwinds and tailwinds."

An executive from Eastman, which opened its first commercial-scale PET depolymerization plant in the U.S. in 2024 in Kingsport, Tenn., said significant investments will be needed, in recycling processing as well as sorting and collection.

"We need a lot more investment," said Sandeep Bangaru, vice president, Circular Platform at Eastman Chemical Co. "One plant isn't going to do it. We need tens of these."

He also noted that the report outlines major growth in reuse, both in thicker PET containers and in clothing industry business models that include more resale and rental, as a strategy to blunt the growth in demand for new virgin PET and polyesters.

"There also has to be a lot of innovation on the reuse side, and this means bringing more solutions in the durables space," he told the panel. "We're expecting 3 [million] to 4 million tons of growth to be curbed by a reuse economy. That's a phenomenal amount of innovation, both product innovation and value-chain innovation needed and a lot of partnerships."

The report presented a big picture look at strategies, from recycling to reuse, to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions from the PET and polyester sectors, and improve the environmental performance of a material that accounts for 30 percent of packaging and clothing on the U.S. market.

The report notes significant new state laws creating potential for more recycling and circular use of PET and polyesters, particularly by building up collection of recycling and supply of materials.

It said five states have passed extended producer responsibility laws for packaging, and one, California, passed the first-in-the-U.S. EPR law for clothing in 2024, SB-707, the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024.

The head of fabric maker Unifi said that while interest in clothing recycling is growing, the textile industry is decades behind the PET packaging industry.

"This took a long time to evolve, recycling the PET bottle," said Unifi CEO Eddie Ingle. "We're probably about 30 years behind in recycling textiles. I think the 2040 goal, rather than the 2030 goal, is probably more realistic for textile to textile."

Another panel at a side event held with PRC, the Textile Recycling Summit, noted interest in chemical recycling in the textile industry, but also uncertainty over what exactly it can do and how it will be regulated within states.

Chelsea Murtha, senior director of sustainability with the American Apparel & Footwear Association, said companies are trying to sort through the state-by-state approach to regulation of chemical recycling, as states start to debate EPR bills for clothing.

She pointed to state legislatures in Maryland and New York being skeptical of chemical recycling, but others, like Washington state, being more open to different technologies.

"It's going to be state-by-state, which is concerning to the brands as they try to make decisions about who to work with, and to make decisions now that could impact their potential compliance several years from now," Murtha said.

She suggested that chemical recycling will be needed in the textile industry: "There are things that can't be mechanically recycled."

Still, others on the TRS panel urged companies in the chemical recycling industry to "be very forthright about its limitations."

"I would say to any chemical recycler out there, don't overpromise what your technology can do," said Marisa Adler, a senior consultant with Resource Recycling Systems. "Be pretty direct and straightforward about it. We need to start building understanding and trust."