Syre venture to decarbonize, dewaste textile industry

07 / 03 / 2024

By Marwa Nassar - -

Syre – new venture initiated by Vargas and H&M Group – is meant to decarbonize and dewaste the textile industry through textile-to-textile recycling at hyperscale, starting with polyester.

Supported by an industry groundbreaking offtake supply agreement with H&M Group, Syre will establish multiple production plants producing circular polyester across the globe, reducing CO2e emissions by up to 85% compared to the production of oil-based virgin polyester.

“Syre marks the start of the great textile shift. We envision a world where every textile fiber sees a new day. By implementing true textile-to-textile recycling at hyperscale, we want to drive the transition from a linear to a circular value chain by putting textile waste to use, over and over again,” said Dennis Nobelius, CEO of Syre.

Textile waste is a growing global challenge, with less than 1% of the global textile fiber market coming from recycled textiles. The textile industry today accounts for 7-10% of global CO2e emissions, with polyester being the biggest emitter and fastest growing fiber. Virgin polyester, made from crude oil in refineries, and bottle-to-fiber recycled polyester (rPET), are both linear meaning the majority of all end-of-life products currently end up in landfills or being incinerated. The textile industry is now at a tipping point as the European Union and other actors are introducing legislation that will regulate waste and accelerate demand for circular materials.

Syre will provide textile-to-textile circular polyester (cPET), with quality on par with oil-based virgin polyester and with a superior sustainability performance, reducing CO2e emissions by up to 85%. Its first production plant is being built in North Carolina, USA, and will be operational during 2024. Based on this blueprint, the manufacturing process will be rapidly scaled for global expansion, starting with Asia and Europe.

Within ten years, Syre aspires to have 12 giga-scale plants up and running at full speed and capacity worldwide, producing more than 3 million metric tons (MT) of circular polyester. The platform is agnostic and could expand into other fibers and technologies in the future.

“Syre is Vargas’ fifth venture and an important milestone towards our vision of directly and indirectly decarbonizing 1% of global emissions. Applying our proven model for building impact companies from the ground up, we are now targeting a new industry vertical where we can enable circularity, reduce textile waste and substantially bring down emissions,” said Carl-Erik Lagercrantz, CEO of Vargas and board member of Syre.