Two innovators in the textile industry, Recover and Polopiqué, have partnered in a new multi-year agreement to achieve sustainable manufacturing and provide end-to-end solutions for the fashion industry.
Under the new partnership, the companies provide brands with the opportunity to take advantage of Recover’s recycled cotton fibers across its product lines to help them reach their sustainability goals.
Polopiqué has capabilities in all stages of the textile production process, from spinning, weaving and finishing to the design and commercialization of high-quality products. By incorporating Recover fiber into its process, the two companies can support brands and retailers by creating an easy solution for brands to produce fully sustainable apparel at scale.
The Portugal-based Polopiqué operates by scaling its sustainable vertically integration production into the industry’s value chain. Its products contain at least 50 percent organic cotton and Global Recycled Standard (GRS)-certified recycled polyester, and with the adoption of Recover’s low-impact recycled cotton fiber, the company will further reduce its ecological footprint.
By partnering, the two companies can also offer an increased global reach and proximity to the customer, with Polopiqué already exporting to 47 countries and working with 1,065 partners worldwide, and Recover creating new production hubs in Bangladesh and Pakistan in 2021 to support the current market demand.
Recover is a material sciences company and global producer of low-impact, high-quality recycled cotton fiber and cotton fiber blends. Recover was honored in Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards for 2021 in the Sustainability and Materials categories.
Recover is aiming for annual production of 200,000 metric tons of recycled cotton fiber by 2025. This will save up to 3 trillion liters of water each year, allow 500,000 acres of land to be directed away from cotton cultivation for other uses, and save up to 4.6 million tons of CO2, the company has said.
For Recover, the next step in achieving its vision of “circular fashion for all” is to scale the recycling of pre- and post-consumer waste (PCW) textiles. The company has been doing this for years for denim and in closed loop projects, aiming to take this to the next level with its ambitious target of having PCW represent more than 40 percent of its inputs by 2025.