H&M Group and partners sign new agreement to scale recycled polyester from textile to textile

H&M Group has joined forces with Vargas Holding to launch Syre, a new company “to rapidly scale recycled polyester from textile to textile.” It is also supported by TPG Rise Climate.

The retailer has a purchase agreement with Syre worth a total of $600 million over seven years, “covering a significant portion of [its] long-term need for recycled polyester, which is currently primarily sourced from rPET bottles to textiles.”

Syre CEO Dennis Nobelius said: “Syre marks the beginning of the great textile change. We imagine a world where every textile fiber sees a new day. By implementing true textile-to-textile recycling at hyperscale, we want to drive the transition from a linear to a circular value chain by harnessing textile waste again and again.”

Its objective will be to provide a recycled polyester yarn with a quality equivalent to virgin polyester, but with a lower impact on the planet. It is building a production plant in the United States (in North Carolina) that should begin operating this year.

From there, the manufacturing process and technology will be scaled up for global expansion and their goal is to have 12 plants worldwide within 10 years.

The other partners in the deal, as mentioned, include Vargas Holding, which specializes in building impact companies (Northvolt, Polarium, H2 Green Steel and Aira) “to realize boundary-pushing ideas for a sustainable future.” ”. And TPG Rise Climate is a dedicated climate investing arm of global alternative asset manager TPG. He brings “extensive experience scaling climate solutions globally and in companies focused on the circular economy.”

With all this, the H&M Group said it aims to “contribute to a significant change in the industry by moving away from virgin polyester and the current industrial standard, towards a closed-loop alternative.”

And H&M's still-new CEO Daniel Evrér said the Swedish fashion retail giant wants to “inspire more industry players to join us to close the loop and accelerate the shift towards a more sustainable future.”

The company's ultimate goal is for 100% of materials to be recycled or sourced in a more sustainable way by 2030, with the previous goal of 30% of materials being recycled by next year. It is getting closer to that goal and said the current 2030 goal calls for 50% recycling by 2030.