The Lenzing Group, a large supplier of sustainably produced specialty fibers, and Renewcell, a Swedish textile-to-textile recycling specialist, signed a multi-year supply agreement on Tuesday to accelerate the transition of the textile industry from a linear to a circular business model.
The agreement includes the sale of 80,000 to 100,000 tons of Renewcell’s 100 percent recycled textile Circulose dissolving pulp to Lenzing over a five-year period, for use in the production of cellulosic fibers for fashion and other textile applications.
“The textile industry must change,” said Christian Skilich, chief pulp officer of the Lenzing Group. “By signing the agreement with Swedish textile-to-textile recycling company Renewcell, Lenzing is able to further integrate recycling and accelerate the transition of the textile industry from linear to circular. As champions of sustainability, we know that moving towards a circular economy is vital to address the enormous textile waste challenges of the industry.”
Patrik Lundström, CEO of Renewcell, said Lenzing is a major player in the industry “with an inspiring track record of path-breaking technical excellence and sustainability leadership.”
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“Our new partnership fits perfectly into Renewcell’s strategy to accelerate the scale-up of circular materials by collaborating with fashion’s most important players,” Lundström said. “We are more than pleased to join forces with Lenzing with the shared goal of making fashion circular.”
Canopy, a not-for-profit environmental organization dedicated to protecting forests, species and climate, welcomed the agreement between Lenzing and Renewcell.
“Accelerating the transition to low-impact, circular production is the challenge of the decade for the fashion industry,” Nicole Rycroft, executive director of Canopy, said. “That is why this partnership between Renewcell and Lenzing is so refreshing–it will bring low-carbon Next Gen solutions to market at scale. With the climate and biodiversity clocks ticking, the race to circularity is one we need all companies to win.”
With its Refibra and Eco Cycle technologies, Lenzing offers solutions for transforming the textile and nonwovens industries toward a circular economy. It is a key aspect of Lenzing’s corporate strategy and ambitious sustainability targets to become a champion of circularity and to offer Tencel and Lenzing Ecovero branded specialty textile fibers with up to 50 percent post-consumer recycled content on a commercial scale by 2025.
To reach this goal Lenzing partners with recycling pioneers like Renewcell. Circulose originates 100 percent from textile waste, like old jeans and production scraps, and turns into dissolving pulp. It transforms textile waste and production scrap into new high-quality textile products.