Swedish textile-to-textile recycling specialist Renewcell, which has struck a number of agreements for its Circulose dissolving pulp with suppliers working throughout the knitwear supply chain, is reporting that it has sold-out its scheduled for production in 2025.
The company only commenced construction of its first plant in July 2021 and inaugurated it in November this year, but during December it has sold the last of its planned annual 60,000 tons of production in 2025.
During 2021, the company announced a long term commercial collaboration with Kelheim Fibres and has now signed an agreement with Lenzing, which will purchase up to 80,000 to 100,000 tons of Renewcell’s 100 per cent recycled textile. It has also recently signed a Letter of Intent with Eastman, the US-based cellulosic acetate fibre producer, to jointly develop Naia Renew ES yarns which are widely used in knitwear.
Circulose is described as a unique material for fashion that is 100 per cent recycled, recyclable, biodegradable, and of virgin-equivalent quality. It is a branded dissolving pulp made from 100 per cent textile waste, like worn-out clothes and production scraps. It is used by fibre producers to make staple fibre or filament viscose, lyocell, modal, acetate or other types of man-made cellulosic fibres. Those fibres are then spun into yarns, woven or knitted into fabrics and finally made into new high-quality textile products.
“We’re only getting started,” said Patrik Lundström, CEO of Renewcell. “With the support of our partners we’ll scale to recycle the equivalent of 1.8 bn t-shirts by 2030 initially by doubling the recycling capacity at our first plant in Sweden.”
