For years, conversations around recycled fashion have focused on plastic bottles turned into polyester. But the truth is, that was never going to be enough. With mountains of textiles piling up in landfills, the real challenge has always been clear: how do we turn end-of-life clothing back into new textiles – at scale, with quality that brands can actually use?
At RE&UP, this has been our mission from the start. And now, the conversation is shifting. Mainstream media outlets like The Wall Street Journal are recognizing that textile-to-textile recycling is no longer just an idea, but an industry on the rise.
In their recent feature on the future of fashion waste, The Wall Street Journal highlighted RE&UP’s role in scaling recycling capacity:
“Every week, trucks deliver worn-out clothes from Europe to a pair of factories in Turkey run by RE&UP Technologies… The results are white cotton fibers and polyester that can be spun into new yarns. The two factories went fully operational last year and have a combined capacity to produce 80,000 metric tons a year of recycled material.”
This acknowledgment matters. It shows that what once seemed like a niche innovation is now becoming part of the global conversation about fashion’s future. But more importantly, it confirms that circular textiles are not a distant goal – they’re happening today.
Of course, scaling this change will take more than a few factories. It requires building out infrastructure, from collection and sorting to logistics, in tandem with forward-thinking regulation and strong industry partnerships. That’s why RE&UP’s vision doesn’t stop at 80,000 tons per year. We are working toward producing one million metric tons of Next-Gen Cotton and Next-Gen Polyester by 2030.
What excites us most is that the fibers we’re producing aren’t compromises. They are traceable, circular and with high quality and performance – meaning brands don’t have to choose one over the other. Already, we’re seeing our materials enter the market, from collaborations with global brands like ONLY and Puma to certified milestones such as our C2C Certified Circularity® certification.
The Wall Street Journal captured the momentum well: this is a tipping point. But the real work lies ahead. To make circularity a reality across fashion, we must accelerate investment, collaboration, and above all, capacity. Without it, collection and sorting cannot scale.
The good news? The momentum is real, the technology is proven, and the future is within reach.
