Latest news with #PeterMajeranowski
Forbes
28-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
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.
Business of Fashion
21-05-2025
- Business
- Business of Fashion
Fashion's Recycling Start-Ups Inch Closer to Commercialisation
For years, the fashion industry has held up new textile recycling technologies as an almost holy-grail-like solution to many of the industry's environmental ills. But proving out this theory by bringing promising innovations to commercial scale has proved long and fraught. However, the last month has shown signs of fresh momentum, with a flurry of start-ups advancing plans to construct their first industrial-scale recycling facilities. In April, H&M-backed Syre signalled its initial intention to build a gigascale plant capable of producing 100,000 to 250,000 metric tonnes of recycled polyester every year in Vietnam. This week, Circ, a US-based start-up whose backers include Zara-owner Inditex, and Reju, a textile recycling venture owned by French engineering company Technip Energies, announced plans to build their first industrial-scale plants in France and the Netherlands respectively. '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 decarbonised, closer to waste-free, and regenerative by design,' Circ president Peter Majeranowski said in a statement. '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.' Circ and Reju are aiming to complete construction and start operations at their new plants by 2028, paving the way to make tens of thousands of tonnes of polyester and cellulose recycled from old textiles available to the market for the first time. Syre is hoping to kick off the build in Vietnam in 2027 with a view to initiate production by 2029. Even so, the volumes in question remain a tiny fraction of the overall textile market and the companies still need to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in financing before breaking ground. To do so, they'll need to show they have taken steps to avoid the pitfalls that led industry pioneer Renewcell to bankruptcy last year. Lessons Learned When Swedish recycler Renewcell started operations at its newly finished industrial plant in 2022, it was hailed as a momentous sign of progress in fashion's ambitions to address the glut of garments created by an ever-growing industry. It took a mere five months for things to fall apart. Demand for the company's recycled raw material was weaker than expected, as it struggled to navigate the industry's complex supply chains and compete on price. Renewcell relaunched as Circulose after private equity firm Altor bought the company's remaining assets out of administration last June, but the supply chain hurdles and price-sensivity it initially faced are even more acute now. The upcoming generation of textile recyclers say they have strategies in place to manage the challenges Renewcell faced. A critical one is securing purchasing commitments from large brands, without which it will be impossible to raise the debt companies need to help build their industrial plants. Syre's venture has been underwritten by a $600 million offtake agreement from H&M and it is working to secure others. Circ and Reju say they are both in advanced talks with potential brand partners. In an intensely competitive market, the start-ups are also looking for ways to keep a control on prices. Though raw materials only make up a tiny fraction of the overall cost of a garment, any premium over conventional prices can quickly compound as a product moves through the many stages of the supply chain leading to inflated fabric prices. To combat this, recyclers are seeking to build up trusted networks of suppliers that can provide more certainty and transparency around pricing. Purchasing commitments from brands help with this, too. 'The ideal option is to have full pull-through so the material doesn't get stuck in the supply chain and it makes it much easier to line up the supply chain because we're confident there's a customer,' said Majeranowski. 'There's so much work we've been doing to coordinate all of this and put it together so that when we turn on the factory, it runs smoothly.' But demand is just one half of the challenge. The recyclers also need to show they can get hold of thousands of tonnes of used textiles to feed their industrial-scale facilities, a tricky feat in a space where there is no shortage of waste but textile collecting and sorting infrastructure is still nascent. 'It doesn't matter how many offtake contracts you have. … Nobody will invest unless you can tell them how you can fulfil your feedstock pipeline in organised fashion,' said Reju CEO Patrik Frisk. Reju, whose €300 million ($338 million) plant will have the capacity to produce 50,000 tonnes of recycled plastic, is engaging with over 100 sorters in Europe and North America to secure a reliable and traceable source of old clothes to feed its factory. Reju's technology is able to process a wide mix of fabrics, giving it more flexibility over the type of feedstock it can take compared to other start-ups, many of which have strict specifications over the mix of fabric they can take. 'We can take a very big funnel; everything nobody else wants,' said Frisk. 'I'll take your worst stuff; the stuff you normally would pay to incinerate.' Circ, which can also process blended fabrics, is taking a slightly different approach. The company is expecting to initially source most of the 70,000 tonnes of feedstock its French plant will be able to process from post-industrial waste imported from factories around Europe and in North Africa. It hopes to be able to switch later to meet its raw material needs with predominantly post-consumer waste as textile collections and sorting infrastructure in the region improves. 'It's a bit of a chicken and egg,' said Majeranowski. Syre only signed its agreement to explore construction in Vietnam on the basis that the company anticipates securing a license that will allow it to import textile waste from neighbouring countries to help supply the factory. At a moment where support for climate-friendly projects is wavering and becoming more politically fraught, government backing for costly, complex engineering projects is critical. Both France and the Netherlands are pushing to gain an edge in what they hope will be a green industrial revolution. For instance, Circ is hoping to gain access to grants and guarantees provided by the French government to help support new industrial projects. The countries have also pioneered policies to encourage more circularity in the textile space, with France the first country in the world to introduce a fee system to make brands bear the cost of managing clothing waste. 'There's a lot of noise right now on ESG,' said Frisk. 'There are people out there and countries and regions that are absolutely serious about this thing.'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Circ to Launch First Commercial-Scale Facility in France
Danville, Va.-based polycotton recycling innovator Circ is expanding its operations and launching its first commercial-scale facility in France. The group announced Monday that construction on the 450-million-euro facility, to be located in Saint-Avold, will begin in 2026, with operations targeted to commence in 2028. According to Circ, the plant, which will recycle post-consumer and post-industrial polycotton textile waste into new materials, will employ 200 individuals through direct and indirect jobs. More from Sourcing Journal Chemical Textile Recycler Eeden Closes $20M Funding Round How Fashion Weeks Can Drive Real Sustainability Material World: Still Burning Bras? You Can Bury Balena's Once operations have ramped up, the facility will be able to recycle 70,000 metric tons of blended textiles each year, Circ estimates. The project was first announced by French President Emmanuel Macron's administration at the 2025 Choose France Summit, an annual economic development conference. The effort is backed by national, regional and European Union incentives and supported by engineering partners including Worley, GEA, and Andritz. In a statement, Circ said the French outpost was conceived as a commercial flagship precipitating future global expansion. 'This is the moment we've been building toward since Circ was founded,' Peter Majeranowski, the firm's president, said Monday. '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,' he added. '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.' According to the executive, France was an attractive location for Circ's first full-scale plant because of its existing industrial base as well as its progressive circularity policymaking. The country has demonstrated a commitment to sustainable innovation and has a deep heritage in fashion. The Saint-Avold region is strategically located and boasts a skilled workforce and mature logistics infrastructure. Over the course of the coming years, Circ said it plans to model additional facilities—likely located in North America and Asia—after this preliminary project. The company's patented hydrothermal technology separates and recovers polyester and cotton from blended textiles, which make up 77 percent of the global textile market. Last month, Circ entered into a strategic agreement with longtime partner Acegreen Eco-Material Technology Co., a producer of cellulose filament products. The Taiwanese firm committed to purchase Circ's recycled pulp over the course of five years to produce lyocell fibers that apparel brands can integrate into their existing supply chains. Acegreen's parent company, Acelon, also committed to buy Circ's recycled polyester to support the production of filament fibers over the same five-year period. Earlier this year, the advanced recycler secured $25-million in oversubscribed funding, led by asset management company Taranis and its Carbon Ventures fund. Circ also received continued support from existing strategic investors Inditex and global materials science firm Avery Dennison.
Fashion United
19-05-2025
- Business
- Fashion United
Circ to open first full-scale commercial facility in France
US textile recycler Circ has announced plans to open a facility in France dedicated to the recycling of used polycotton textiles into new materials. The plan was confirmed at the 2025 Choose France Summit by the country's president Emmanuel Macron. Set to be located in Saint-Avold, the new facility is said to be 'the first of its kind to recycle post-consumer and post-industrial polycotton textiles' into raw materials for the textile industry. It will also be Circ's first full-scale commercial facility and will serve as its flagship, representing 'a turning point for the company's growth'. Circ said that once operational, the site will have the capacity to process 70,000 metric tons of polycotton material a year. Construction is scheduled to start late-2026, with full operations targeted for 2028. The decision to choose France, and specifically Saint-Avold, for the facility intertwines with the country's 'forward-leaing circularity policies' and 'commitment to green innovation', Circ said. Additional facilities are also planned for North America and Asia in the coming years, as the company looks to 'meet global demand'. In a release, president of Circ, Peter Majeranowski, said: 'This is the moment we've been building toward since Circ was founded. 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 decarbonised, 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.'
Reuters
16-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Circ to build $500 million cotton, polyester recycling plant in France
LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - U.S. textile recycling firm Circ has received backing from the French government and European Union to build a $500 million plant in France that will be the first to recover cotton and polyester on an industrial scale, its chief executive told Reuters. Announced by the French government on Friday, the plant at Saint-Avold in the northeast of the country will be able to process 70,000 metric tons a year after it starts operating in 2028, and employ 200 people. Funded through a mix of equity and debt, the 450 million euro ($504.09 million) plant will look to access grants and guarantees including the Strategic Projects Guarantee from the French state, Chief Executive Peter Majeranowski said. Creating a 'circular economy' by recycling more is a key part of the EU's efforts to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, although efforts to-date have been patchy. Majeranowski said the new factory would mark a turning point for the industry. "This will be the world's first industrial scale polycotton (recycling plant)," he said. "Now, most of the clothing produced is a blend of polyester and cotton, and that makes it very difficult to recycle, so having this facility is a major landmark milestone." The U.N. has said the fashion industry is responsible for up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions and uses more energy than the aviation and shipping industries combined. The industry is also a major consumer of water and polluter of water sources. A number of companies are developing technologies to recycle the millions of tons of polycotton waste created every year, amid demand from retailers keen to burnish their sustainability credentials and meet tougher regulations. Circ uses hydrothermal technology to break down the polyester without damaging the cotton, such that both can be recovered in the same process and reused. Clothing retailers Inditex ( opens new tab and Patagonia have both taken stakes in Circ and its recycled materials are already being used by brands including Inditex-owned Zara. Partners in the building of the factory include Worley, GEA, and Andritz and the aim is to use it as a model for future plants, Majeranowski said, with strong demand from producers and suppliers keen to help fashion firms meet their climate goals. "We have a lot of interest from all over the world, from South Asia, East Asia, in the States of course, Canada, Australia," he said. ($1 = 0.8927 euros)
