#Recycled Fibers

2025-10-23

matterr at K – Where innovation meets industry

At this year’s K trade fair, matterr took the stage to showcase its technology and demonstrate how it drives circular polyester at an industrial scale. Insightful conversations, strong new connections, and great energy — all together reminds how powerful it is when innovation meets industry. The momentum from Düsseldorf shows: circular transformation is no longer a vision — it’s happening.

The cleantech company matterr was part of this year’s K — The World’s No. 1 Trade Fair for Plastics and Rubber, introducing its patented depolymerization technology to a global audience. At the booth and during its sessions the company shared insights into its first small-scale industrial plant, to be built at Chemiepark Knapsack, which will serve as a blueprint for future large-scale facilities.

On day two, matterr hosted a press briefing together with Ralf Müller and Christoph Kappenhagen from the management board of YNCORIS, and Monika Beck, Head of Business Unit D-A-CH / Spain / Portugal at NRW.Global Business. The message was clear: industrial innovation can start in Germany — and scale across borders.

“With the EU funding and BESTSELLER’s investment, we have reached two important milestones toward building a small-scale industrial depolymerization plant at Chemiepark Knapsack. Our decision to scale in Germany is intentional: the technology was developed here, and we will keep the value creation here. This ensures strategic independence in a key technology driving the global circular transformation in the textile and packaging industries", states Melanie Hackler, CEO of matterr

Project and regional impact

The planned facility, with an annual capacity of around 10,000 tons, will convert hard-to-recycle polyester streams — from textiles to multilayer packaging — into virgin-quality, drop-in feedstock. The technology is specifically designed to handle complex material streams that mechanical recycling cannot handle.

By recovering polyester captured in mixed waste streams currently sent to landfill or incineration, matterr advances decarbonization across the polyester value chain, and contributes to EU circular economy and climate targets – while reinforcing Germany’s role as a hub for industrial innovation.

Scaling up, matterr aims to prove that fossil-free circular solutions work at industrial scale and to set a new benchmark for regenerative supply chains across industries.

“Chemiepark Knapsack offers ideal conditions: infrastructure, energy networks, skilled workforce, and proximity to strong partners across the value chain. For us as a team, it is also about establishing standards and processes that enable fast replication and international roll-out, says Benjamin Rump, COO of matterr.

Recycling pioneer matterr to build plant at Chemiepark Knapsack

matterr is establishing operations at Chemiepark Knapsack. The planned small-scale industrial depolymerisation plant will be located in the Hürth section of the site and will have an annual capacity of 10,000 tonnes. The facility marks an important step toward a fossil-free, circular PET industry. Groundbreaking is scheduled for 2026.

matterr welcomes BESTSELLER as new investor to scale polyester recycling

matterr, the German cleantech company pioneering polyester recycling, announces a strategic partnership with family-owned international fashion group BESTSELLER. The investment, made through BESTSELLER’s innovation and investment platform Invest FWD, follows a major EU commitment of 30 million euros in public support through the EFRE/JTF program in North Rhine-Westphalia. Together, these milestones lay the foundation for matterr’s first small-scale industrial plant and the subsequent international scale-up of its technology.

Indorama Ventures supports KH Editions in building on its RECO experience Taking Thai circular fashion to New York Fashion Week

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited, a global sustainable chemical company, is supporting KH Editions, a Thai fashion brand that has grown through the RECO program, by providing fabrics woven with deja™ recycled polyester yarn. The fabrics have been used to create two fashion looks and accessories from the brand’s ten-look Spring/Summer 2027 collection, which will be presented in New York City, United States, on 15 September 2026 during New York Fashion Week.

RE&UP’s Next-Gen Cotton fibers power Zalando private label t-shirt collection crafted from innovative recycled textiles

RE&UP Recycling Technologies’ Next-Gen Cotton powers a new collection from Zalando’s private labels, marking a step forward in bringing textile-to-textile recycled fibers into commercial fashion production. Launching on Zalando in August, the collection comprises five t-shirts across YOURTURN by Zalando and Even&Odd by Zalando, made from a circular-knit fabric blending 80% organic cotton with 20% RE&UP Next-Gen Cotton — textile-to-textile recycled fiber produced from textile waste. This is the first time RE&UP's recycled fibers feature in Zalando's private label assortment.

Driving circularity with Uster Recycled Fiber Matrix

The textile industry’s commitment to circularity continues to accelerate, and mechanical recycling is viewed as a targeted approach to cutting textile waste and its environmental impact. At the forefront of this drive, Uster has developed the Recycled Fiber Matrix, a two-dimensional assessment of mechanically recycled fibers to guide optimum processing and end-uses.

Jeanologia Sustainability Report highlights environmental impact of textile technologies

Jeanologia has published its Sustainability Report 2025, reporting a 13.64% reduction in its own carbon footprint and quantifying the environmental impact associated with the use of its technologies across the global textile industry. According to the company’s calculations, their use avoided the pollution of 21.52 million m³ of water and emissions of approximately 103,530 tonnes of CO₂ compared with conventional textile finishing processes.

Global Standards announce launch of a new textile processing standard

The 14th September 2026 marks the public launch of the Global Responsible Textile Standard (GRTS), a new standard for the processing of textiles made from fibres certified to third-party standards recognised by GRTS and covering a broad range of plant, animal, synthetic, man-made cellulosic and recycled fibres.

Orient Rongheng connects production planning across China and Bangladesh with FastReactPlan

Chinese apparel manufacturer Orient Rongheng is implementing Coats Digital’s FastReactPlan to digitalize production planning across its manufacturing operations in China and Bangladesh. The project aims to connect capacity, materials and order planning across multiple factories while integrating these processes with the company’s existing ERP and Manufacturing Execution System (MES).

ALLIED expands down traceability with lot-level carbon footprint data

ALLIED Feather + Down has expanded its TrackMyDown traceability platform to include validated cradle-to-gate carbon footprint data linked to individual down lots. The initiative is designed to provide brands and consumers with more detailed environmental information on the materials used in finished products and could also support future data requirements associated with Digital Product Passports.