With consumers and brands both still facing rising costs, the apparel industry will need to stick to its guns if it wants to prove once and for all it’s ready to invest in sustainable materials. Credit: Shutterstock.

Just a few months ago, the once bright future of recycling for fashion seemed bleak.

Swedish textile-to-textile recycling start-up Renewcell had declared bankruptcy in February after weaker than expected sales. The same month, the UK’s Textile Recycling Association voiced concerns about the “imminent collapse” of its textile recycling sector due to global market challenges and called on the UK government to regulate the industry through an extended producer responsibility scheme.

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At the time, many worried that the fledgling industry was already faltering as demand for recycled fibres fell.

Amid a cost-of-living crisis that continues to limit consumer clothing budgets, and increased freight costs already pushing up prices for suppliers and brands, perhaps it was not surprising that demand for recycled fibres, which tend to be more expensive than virgin fibre, was falling.

Fast forward to today and things seem to be improving significantly.

Last week, Sri Lanka-based manufacturer MAS Holdings announced plans to buy recycled polyester from startup Ambercycle. This came just two weeks after H&M Group’s startup Syre secured $100m in Series A funding for its gigascale textile-to-textile recycling plants in Vietnam and Iberia.

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Renewcell also saw some further good news last week when Swedish company Altor purchased the company out of bankruptcy, giving it a new name – Circulose. Non-profit organisation Canopy welcomed the news with its executive director Nicole Rycroft describing it as giving the industry “a second chance”.

She said in a statement that she was confident “the phoenix would rise from the ashes”.

So, is this a sign that recycled fibre is back in fashion?

With consumers and brands both still facing rising costs, the apparel industry will need to stick to its guns if it wants to prove once and for all that it is ready to seriously invest in sustainable materials along with the technology required to keep a circular supply chain in continuous flow.

As the climate crisis continues at pace, the world might not even have time for sustainability to go out of style again.

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