An industry alliance of Taiwanese companies recently announced that its newly developed recycling technology can convert textile waste into soft, high-performance polyester elastomers, offering a new path to solving the recycling challenges of composite materials in the fashion industry.

The alliance members include polyester manufacturer Far Eastern New Century (FENC), the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI), Long Da Hsing Yeh Co., Ltd., and Bo Quan International Development Enterprise Co., Ltd. Their jointly developed technology is named FENC Topgreen rTPEE and won an award in the 2026 R&D 100 Awards. According to Far Eastern New Century, this technology can convert contaminated footwear waste into recycled polyester with a purity of 99.5%.

In a statement, Far Eastern New Century said this innovative rTPEE material can be used in a variety of footwear and textile applications, including shoe midsoles and outsoles, elastic fibers, waterproof breathable membranes, and synthetic leather.

The approach behind the technology is to integrate footwear structures using all-polyester-based materials, thereby promoting the development of single-material footwear. Far Eastern New Century said that single-material design can reduce the difficulty of downstream sorting and recycling, making footwear easier to chemically recycle after the end of its life cycle.

In terms of environmental benefits, Far Eastern New Century said that compared with traditional thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) commonly used in footwear and textiles, its polyester-based technology can reduce carbon emissions by more than 40% while maintaining product performance and functionality. The company also said it will continue to advance low-carbon materials and circular economy solutions, cooperating with industry partners to promote high-value utilization and commercial application of recycled materials.

Far Eastern New Century did not disclose the operating cost of this new technology. The cost of recycling textile waste has always been high—last June, the European Anti-Fraud Office seized about 4,200 tons of textile waste that was illegally shipped from Italy to Turkey, precisely to circumvent expensive recycling requirements.

In the EU, old textiles and textile waste are two different concepts. Currently, all separately collected textiles are regarded as waste, and member states must ensure that separately collected textiles undergo sorting operations before possible shipment, to prevent waste from being mislabeled as reusable goods for export. For operators engaged in used clothing export and recycling, Taiwan's depolymerization and purification route starting from the composite material end may provide a reference technical option for compliant recycling of highly mixed waste such as footwear.

Source: Taiwanese Consortium Announces New Recycling Tech For Textile Waste · Originally published on 2026-09-08