From September 2 to 3, 2025, the "2025 Circular Innovation & Fashion Conference," hosted by the Social Responsibility Office of the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), was held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai. The conference focused on policies, technologies, standards, and business models for the recycling of waste textiles, serving as an industry-wide mobilization effort toward the national quantitative targets of "achieving a 25% recycling rate for waste textiles and 2 million tons of recycled fiber output by 2025."

Key Points

  • In 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Recycling of Waste Textiles," specifying a 25% recycling rate and 2 million tons of recycled fiber output by 2025.
  • Sun Ruizhe, President of CNTAC, disclosed that from 2005 to 2024, the energy consumption per unit of output value in China's textile industry dropped by over 65%, the annual growth rate of waste textile recycling volume averaged 12%, and annual recycled fiber usage exceeded 3 million tons.
  • Zhejiang Jiaren processes 40,000 tons of waste textiles annually, with Phase II capacity of 50,000 tons coming online within the year, targeting 500,000 tons by 2030, with recycled polyester purity reaching 99.9%.

Policy and Technology Emerge as Two Main Threads

The opening plenary was moderated by Liu Xin, Director of the Industry Department of CNTAC. In his address, CNTAC President Sun Ruizhe proposed that the industry must seize three major opportunities: the restructuring of technological innovation paradigms, profound shifts in consumer mindsets, and strategic guidance through precise policies. He also called for strengthened cross-sector collaboration to transform isolated innovations into systemic ecosystem advantages.

Yang Shangbao, a public policy scholar at the NDRC, stated that textile circular development has transitioned from "spontaneous exploration" to a phase of "policy-driven and market-responsive" coordination. Future policies will focus on three directions: unified standards, data sharing, and financial support, to improve the waste textile recycling system and expand application scenarios for recycled fibers.

Xu Weilin, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Party Secretary of Wuhan Textile University, pointed out that the industry is facing a critical leap from "physical recycling" to "chemical regeneration," requiring breakthroughs in technical bottlenecks such as improving recycled fiber performance, intelligent sorting of waste textiles, and microplastic governance. He predicted that within the next three years, technologies including bio-enzymatic regeneration and digital inkjet printing combined with AI process optimization will be applied at scale, potentially reducing production energy consumption by over 30%.

Digital Product Passports and EPR Become Focal Points for International Alignment

Yan Yan, Vice President of CNTAC and Director of the Social Responsibility Office, introduced that the association has preliminarily established a Digital Product Passport (DPP) framework based on "white papers mapping pathways, standards providing guidance, and systematic technology implementation." Using Li-Ning's knitted crew-neck short-sleeve T-shirt as a real-world case, the system achieves full lifecycle information visualization from raw material sourcing and production energy consumption to carbon footprint and recycling instructions. She stated that the next step will be to promote DPP integration with carbon labeling and supply chain dynamic mapping.

Guan Yisong, Chief Representative of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation China, introduced that 15 countries and regions globally, including the EU, Canada, and Japan, have enacted textile Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations. He suggested that China, given its large industrial scale and numerous SMEs, should build an EPR implementation model featuring government guidance, enterprise leadership, and social participation.

Gao Dongfeng, Secretary-General of the National Technical Committee 415 on Product Recycling Foundation and Management Standardization (SAC/TC 415), revealed that China has preliminarily formed a textile circular standards framework covering the entire chain of recycling, sorting, regeneration, and application, including 12 key standards such as waste textile classification and grading and recycled fiber performance requirements. The next step will be to promote alignment between standards and certification and testing systems.

Rakesh VAZIRANI, Director of Decarbonization and Clean Production at Bureau Veritas Consumer Products Services, noted that the EU's Circular Economy Act public consultation has been launched, and future requirements for textile carbon footprint, recyclability, and information disclosure will become more stringent. Enterprises need to establish full-process carbon accounting systems in advance. Bettina HELLER, Head of the UN Environment Programme's Sustainable Textiles Initiative, stated that the initiative has partnered with over 200 institutions from more than 50 countries to advance sustainable textile goals, and China's experience in recycling system development and industrialization of regeneration technologies is worth global reference.

Materials: Chemical Methods, Bio-Enzymatic Methods, and Blend Separation Land in Quick Succession

The thematic sharing session on September 3 was moderated by Hu Kehua, Deputy Director of the Social Responsibility Office of CNTAC. In the materials innovation segment, several companies disclosed industrialization progress:

Ruth Farrell, Global General Manager of Eastman's Textile Division, announced that Naia™ sustainable acetate cellulose fiber will achieve localized production in China, with commercial production starting in Q4 this year. Florian Heubrandner, Executive Vice President of Lenzing Group, introduced that the group launched fibers containing 20% recycled materials as early as 2017, began production at its Nanjing plant in 2024, and plans to increase the recycled material proportion to 40% by 2040.

Jiang Gangwen, Co-founder of Yuantian Biotechnology, stated that his team leveraged AI to optimize enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency, achieving industrial-scale degradation of PET waste textiles in 8 hours, becoming the world's first company in this field to obtain GRS certification. Yu Liangliang, Marketing Director of Zhejiang Jiaren, introduced that the company processes 40,000 tons of waste textiles annually with recycled polyester purity reaching 99.9%, Phase II capacity of 50,000 tons will come online this year, targeting 500,000 tons by 2030, and products have been used in Puma's European Cup jerseys. Li Xiangyu, Chief Sustainability Officer of Amineo Material Technology Co., Ltd., stated that its full-fiber regeneration technology for polyester-spandex blends can precisely separate polyester from spandex at 90°C under normal pressure, achieving a comprehensive carbon reduction 60% lower than virgin materials. A thousand-ton factory has been commissioned, a ten-thousand-ton factory will be established in Lianyungang in 2026, and orders are booked through the end of 2026. Li Ming, Fashion Apparel R&D Director of Fujian Yongrong Jinjiang Co., Ltd., introduced that a 10,000-ton recycled nylon production line was commissioned on January 1, 2025, with recycled nylon performance approaching virgin levels, and partnerships with H&M and ZARA have secured over 1,000 tons of orders in half a year.

Wang Huaping, Vice Dean of the College of Materials Science and Engineering at Donghua University, pointed out that the industry still faces three pain points: low high-quality T2T ratios, difficulty in blend separation, and high costs. He suggested integrating resources through an "intermediate separation" technology pathway to build an intelligent, clean recycling and regeneration system.

Sorting, Microplastics, and Tax Policies Draw Attention

Zhao Guoliang, former Professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, introduced that intelligent sorting of waste textiles already has solutions including desktop scanning (1.5 seconds per item), array sorting (2,000 kg/hour), and hyperspectral imaging. He suggested incorporating identifiable markers at the design stage in conjunction with digital product passports.

Li Daoji, Director of the Plastic Circularity and Innovation Research Institute at East China Normal University, clarified that 76% of microplastics in the environment are fibers, but most experiments use plastic pellets rather than textile fibers, resulting in a lack of targeted risk assessments. Microplastics are difficult to enter human tissues through diet or respiration; microplastics in blood and organs are mostly related to injection routes such as medical infusions. He recommended differentiating chemical fibers from traditional microplastics in assessments and establishing dedicated testing standards.

Yang Yinghong, Deputy Director of the Textile Industry Green Development Professional Committee at the China Textile Planning Institute, raised ten major challenges, including that tax policies only grant VAT reductions for chemical fibers with 100% recycled content and other fibers with 70% recycled content, making it difficult for low-content recycled products to enjoy preferential treatment. Meanwhile, second-hand clothing circulation lacks mandatory standards, exports rely on customs supervision, and domestic circulation constraints are insufficient. He suggested starting with institutional uniforms and student uniforms to guide consumer awareness, and accelerating the development of third-party inspection and testing institutions and recycled fiber traceability systems.

Brands Explore Circular Business Models Amid Cooling

Xia Yanhong, Sustainability Head of Decathlon Greater China, candidly acknowledged that circular business models face challenges of invisible costs and insufficient consumer awareness. She noted that green electricity collective procurement received lukewarm feedback due to difficulty in generating emotional resonance, while reverse logistics costs are high and consumer education is difficult, requiring full value chain collaboration. Wu Xiaoxia, Senior Sustainability Manager at Nike, introduced the "Old Shoes New Life Program," which partners with Alipay and SF Express for online appointment-based door-to-door shoe collection and has set up recycling bins in over 100 offline stores, having built 44 eco-friendly courts and recycled 280,000 pairs of shoes. Li Xiaoxia, Sustainability Manager of Yibin Grace Group, introduced that the company's 2,000-ton waste textile pilot line was commissioned in April 2024, and it has partnered with Dali Group to build a "brand-to-brand" closed loop, with Lyocell fiber capable of 8-10 recycling cycles. Wang Lin, Circular Project Lead at the China Textile Economic Research Center, introduced a partnership with Jinjiang Hotels to convert waste linens into viscose staple fiber or filament through chemical methods, with a thousand-ton solvent-based production line commissioned in April this year. Liu Kebao, Founder of the Yuyue GreenSuit brand, proposed a "circular technology + innovative design + precise scenarios" approach, citing cases such as Shanghai Museum cultural creative bags and JD Logistics circular pallets to bring recycled materials into high-value-added scenarios.

The conference venue itself embodied circular principles: the exhibition area's outer walls were constructed from recycled turnover boxes from previous exhibitions, and a Sustainable Innovation Zone was set up at Booth H140 in Hall 6.1 of intertextile, showcasing achievements in climate action, carbon footprint management, digital traceability, and carbon-neutral forests.

From 2015, when the CNTAC Social Responsibility Office anchored 12 indicators across economic, social, and environmental dimensions, to the 2020 release of the "Circular Fashion: China New Textile Economy Outlook" report, and now to this conference, China's textile industry's circular exploration is reaching a node of transition from isolated breakthroughs to full-chain collaboration. For the old clothing recycling and regeneration industry, the sprint year for the 25% utilization rate target, combined with the advancement of EU EPR and digital passports, means that export compliance, fiber traceability, and high-value utilization will become the intersection of competition and cooperation in the coming one to two years.

Source: 2025 Circular Innovation & Fashion Conference: A Decade of Deep Cultivation Builds Foundations, Collaborative Innovation Opens New Journeys · Originally published on 2025-09-09