Key Points

  • Carbios and the Fiber-to-Fiber Consortium completed industrial-scale validation: recycled polyester T-shirts were produced from complex textile waste and plastic waste, with performance matching virgin polyester.
  • The value chain spans Portugal, Spain, and France: over 1 tonne of EnzyTex-grade r-PET was polymerized and pelletized, then spun, woven, dyed, and made into garments entirely under standard industrial conditions.
  • The project involved three years of collaboration, with participants including Patagonia, PUMA, Salomon, and European industrial partners such as Selenis, ANTEX, Henitex, TAD, and ToptexCube.

French biotechnology company Carbios (Euronext Growth Paris: ALCRB) announced on September 29, 2026 that, together with Fiber-to-Fiber Consortium members Patagonia, PUMA, and Salomon, it has successfully produced high-quality recycled polyester T-shirts from complex textile waste and plastic waste on European industrial manufacturing lines. This achievement demonstrates that the company's biorecycling technology can convert difficult-to-process mixed waste streams into high-performance textile products that meet the requirements of every stage of industrial production.

A European Collaboration Spanning Five Countries and the Entire Chain

From polymerization and spinning to knitting, dyeing, and garment making, the entire process was carried out by Carbios together with partners across the European textile value chain. First, the Carbios process converts textile waste and complex plastic waste into monomers that meet strict quality standards, with quality comparable to petrochemical-derived materials. Selenis in Portugal then repolymerizes these monomers to produce more than 1 tonne of high-quality r-PET, sold under the name EnzyTex, which can be directly integrated into existing industrial production lines.

Next, this r-PET was made into yarn on ANTEX's industrial lines in Spain, woven into interlock fabric on Henitex's equipment in France, dyed in industrial dye vats by France's TAD (Teintures et Apprêts Danjoux), and finally made into garments by France's ToptexCube (Chamatex Group), with every step carried out under standard industrial conditions. The finished fiber is fully compatible with conventional textile processes, and its mechanical strength, dyeability, and color fastness are comparable to virgin polyester. This garment, made entirely in Europe, proves that circular textile manufacturing can be scaled without sacrificing quality.

Statements from the Parties

Carbios CEO Benoît Grenot said this achievement shows that enzymatic recycling has reached the highest standards of the textile industry, converting complex waste streams into high-purity recycled polyester feedstock and demonstrating that circularity is now a reality that can be deployed at industrial scale. Howard Williams, PUMA's Global Director of Apparel and Accessories Innovation, said Carbios has proven that complex PET waste can be recycled into high-quality polyester fiber and remade into products under existing industrial conditions. Guillaume Meyzenq, CEO of Salomon, said the consortium's success shows that collective intelligence can overcome one of the industry's most complex challenges, opening up scale for circular solutions in high-performance textiles.

What the Consortium Validated

After three years of collaboration, the Fiber-to-Fiber Consortium initiated by Carbios achieved several key validations: enzymatic recycling can handle complex textile waste, including blends and contaminated materials; EnzyTex recycled polyester performs comparably to fossil-based polyester; 100% recycled polyester products can be produced under standard operating conditions, confirming the process's industrial scalability; and integration of a Europe-based value chain was completed. The EnzyTex mentioned in the article can be supplied as textile-grade r-PET pellets or yarn, designed for direct integration into existing textile production lines; the waste processed by C covers pre-consumer and post-consumer textiles, with the difficulty lying in fiber blends such as cotton and elastane, as well as contaminants such as dyes, finishing agents, and silicones.

For the used clothing and recycled fiber industry, the significance of this case is that mixed, dirty waste textiles have long been considered a dead end for recycling, while an entire European value chain has proven with garments of virgin-level performance that the enzymatic depolymerization route has moved beyond the laboratory stage and entered a replicable phase of industrial mass production.

Source: Carbios and the Fiber-to-Fiber Consortium successfully validate the industrial-scale production of recycled polyester T-shirts made from complex plastic and textile waste. · Originally published on 2026-09-29