#Recycling / Circular Economy

2022-05-05

Recover™ partners with Sysav to scale post-consumer waste recycling ambitions

Leading recycled cotton fiber producer, Recover™, has announced a new partnership agreement with textile sorting company, Sysav, in an effort to tackle the growing problem of textile waste and accelerate circularity in the textiles industry.

As part of the agreement, Sysav will start to supply post-consumer waste (PCW), made up of 95% cotton, to Recover™ in 2022, with increasingly larger volumes expected in the following years. It comes as a result of a growing relationship between the two companies that began in 2020, and is the next step in the development of high-quality apparel and other textile products using Recover™ recycled fibers from post-consumer waste (PCW).

The agreement forms part of Recover’s strategy to invest in long-term purchasing contracts worldwide to lockup waste supply and will help to scale its post-consumer waste recycling. The company has set the ambitious target of having PCW represent more than 40 percent of its inputs by 2025, which would amount to ±85.000 tons of used garments.

Helene Smits, Chief Sustainability Officer at Recover™, said “Recycling post-consumer garments at scale and with high quality is the holy grail and THE challenge to solve if we want to move to a circular textiles industry and sorting post-consumer textiles on composition and color at scale is an essential enabler to achieve that. It has been a pleasure working together with Sysav in the past year to help optimize their technology and processes based on our needs and we are happy to now take the first step in achieving the ambitious targets Recover™ has set for PCW recycling.”

Sysav’s Siptex is the world's first large-scale facility able to automatically sort textiles on composition and color whilst providing a quality-assured product.

Its solution is a key missing link in the textile value chain between collection and high-quality textile recycling, helping to overcome the challenge that the variation and quality differences of post-consumer waste poses compared with homogenous virgin raw material. By partnering together, the two companies aim to take a step closer to closing the loop on fashion, whilst upholding the highest quality and sustainability standards.

Stefan Poldrugac, Business Developer at Sysav commented, “With the ReFab® products we are in the process to set a new industry standard for postconsumer textiles. The partnership with high quality recycler Recover™ is a milestone in this endeavor. Our mutual exchange of technical expertise proves that close collaborations throughout the textile value chain is key in turning the textile waste problem into circular flows of sustainable raw material.”

“Production is a product”

From technical textiles and AI-driven robotics to the limitations of textile circularity: Professor Dr Thomas Gries looks back on more than two decades of development at ITA Aachen. In the interview, he explains why production technology remains a decisive success factor, discusses international collaborations and innovation ecosystems, and shares his views on the transformation of production landscapes and the challenges facing an increasingly regulated industry.

“We need to move away from the price trap and return to a value-driven mindset.”

With its new Textile Innovation Center, KARL MAYER is sending a strong signal for innovation, collaboration, and the future of textile applications. In this interview, Karl Josef Mayer discusses new opportunities in warp knitting, the processing of staple fibres, recycling, the changing role of machinery manufacturers, and why the textile industry must once again focus more strongly on the value of textiles. by Oliver Schmidt

“Innovation, resilience and international experience remain the great strengths of the Swiss textile machinery industry”

Geopolitical uncertainty, growing competitive pressure from China, new free trade agreements and the shift towards a circular economy are currently reshaping the global textile industry. In this interview, Cornelia Buchwalder discusses the current mood within the Swiss textile machinery sector, the industry’s distinctive innovative strength, new market opportunities in India and Asia, and the technological trends that could shape the upcoming trade fair cycle leading up to ITMA 2027.

Industrial scale meets verified governance: RE&UP is now B Corp™ certified

RE&UP, the circular-tech transforming global textile waste into high-volume Next-Gen materials, has officially become a Certified B Corporation™. The milestone establishes the industrial recycler among a select group of manufacturing infrastructure providers verified as meeting B Lab Standards for social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.

Recover™ and Ünteks Group partner to scale recycled cotton in knitwear

Recover(TM), a global producer of low‐impact, high‐quality recycled cotton fiber, announces a new partnership with Ünteks Group, a vertically integrated textile manufacturer based in Turkey. The collaboration focuses on the development of circular knit fabrics and garments, combining Recover’s recycled cotton fiber with Ünteks Group’s integrated capabilities across knitting, dyeing, printing, and garment production.

ALADIN paves the way for circular and demand-driven textile production in Europe

Textile production can be organized sustainably by utilizing short supply chains and preventing overproduction. This can already be achieved today by intelligently connecting and efficiently utilizing existing infrastructure. At the same time, production becomes circular when innovative technologies and materials are used that enable high-quality recycling. The ALADIN research project, launched in May 2026 and co-funded with five million euros under the EU Horizon Europe program, is creating the conditions for this.

Ence and ShareTex begin initial testing of the ATENEA innovation project to promote textile recycling in Spain

Ence and ShareTex are making progress on the Atenea R&D project, which aims to develop a complete value chain for textile recycling in Spain. Specifically, the goal of the ATENEA project—which is funded by the Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI)—is to connect all the necessary stages for the recovery of textile waste, from collection and management, through recycling and transformation into new raw materials, to their incorporation into new textile products.

Rieter sees Barmag integration on track as orders and sales rise

The first half of 2026 was shaped by the successful completion of the largest acquisition in Rieter’s history. The Man-Made Fiber Division enables entry into the growth segment of man-made fibers and sustainably strengthens Rieter’s market position in the Asia region. The expanded Group is now the world’s leading system supplier for the processing of natural and man-made fibers. In the first half of the year, initial cost savings in material costs and operating expenses have already been realized. The targeted synergies are expected to amount to at least CHF 20 million by the end of the 2028 financial year. Due to the completion of the acquisition on February 2, 2026, the first half of the year for the Man-Made Fiber Division only amounts to five months.