Virginia-based textile recycling innovator Circ is going global as it scales up production of its reconstituted waste fibers.
The group has established a formal strategic partnership with Acegreen Eco-Material Technology Co., a subsidiary of Taiwan’s Acelon Chemicals & Fiber Corp., to manufacture lyocell derived from Circ’s unique hydrothermal blended textile recycling process. Using heat and pressure, poly-cotton blends are separated into synthetic content and natural fiber, and the reclaimed cotton is then rendered into flakes and turned into a pulp used to make new lyocell.
The formalized, long-term partnership comes after nearly five years of collaboration, in which Acegreen has scaled up production to commercially viable levels, according to Circ chief operating officer Conor Hartman. Acegreen will aid the firm on research and development projects while continuing to promote the commercial success of the recycled material, which the two firms recently leveraged in a spring 2023 capsule with Zara.
“There’s so much interest in circular materials right now, and I think everyone who has seen the quality of what was released with Zara is happy with it and interested in doing more,” he told Sourcing Journal. This spring, the firm announced a $25-million investment from Zalando and Avery Dennison to accelerate its engineering expansion.
The companies believe the innovation has the potential to radically change the raw materials market. According to environmental non-profit Canopy, 300 million trees are cut down each year for use in manmade cellulosic fibers (MMCFs) like viscose and lyocell. The group’s research revealed that just 25 percent of globally discarded cotton and viscose fabrics would fully offset the tree pulp needed to serve the MMCF market, and using the waste as feedstock would not only save trees, but cut carbon emissions and water use.
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What’s more, Circ CEO Peter Majeranowski said that the material developed with Acegreen, made with 50 percent recycled content and 50 percent Forest Stewardship Council-certified pulp, is a long and continuous filament fiber. “It creates different properties for the end product—you get these very soft, drapey, silky outcomes that are really terrific, with high strength,” he explained. Moving forward, the group is working to incorporate a greater percentage of recycled content into the material.
“The future for manmade cellulosic fibers, like lyocell, is reclaimed cotton in place of tree pulp,” Acegreen CEO Roger Chou said. The partnership with Circ will lead to the recovery of “tens of millions of tons of cotton currently going to landfill or incineration because it is trapped in blends with polyester.”
Hartman said that Circ was attracted to Acegreen’s “advanced thinking around circular markets,” and that the companies’ mutual commitment to closing the loop solidified their partnership. “They had the R&D capacity to do basically what no other company in the world was capable of doing in lyocell and MMCF development, and we’ve seen them really investing in that over time.”
The company achieved Canopy Green Shirt certification in 2022, scoring a 28 out of 35 potential assessment points from the environmental group for participating in audits, investing in research projects, publicly sharing its supplier list and adopting local and regional policies related to green production. Acegreen also boasts clients across a range of industries, from fashion apparel to the medical space, as well as companies that manufacture industrial textiles.
Circ is also working with unnamed partners to take on the reclaimed polymer content that comes from its hydrothermal recycling process. “Our products, whether lyocell or polyester, can be utilized in a variety of ways,” Hartman said, including new textiles or plastic products. “There’s so many applications in the world. We’re in the textile market now, but we see incredible growth opportunities in other areas in the future.”
“We will entertain any application that is equal or upcycled value,” Majeranowski added. “For us, it’s a win if we divert waste from landfill and incineration.”