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Corporate Update

Polyester-Rich Textile Wastes Recycled To Monomer At Demonstration Plant

• By  Textile Excellence
• April 30, 2026

AXENS, IFP Energies Nouvelles, France; and JEPLAN Inc., Japan announced the success of a major industrial test for recycling post-consumer textile waste rich in polyester (polyethylene terephthalate; PET) using their Rewind^® PET technology. This test was carried out in their semi-industrial unit (capacity 1,000 ton/year) operated by JEPLAN in Japan.

Several tons of post-consumer, polyester-rich, European textile wastes, sorted and prepared in France, have been processed in the Axens, IFPEN and JEPLAN semi-industrial demonstration unit, located in Japan, to successfully produce the base monomer of a 100% recycled polyester.

Several tens of tons of the base monomer of polyester, BHET, have been produced and will soon be converted into polyester yarns, fabrics and garments.

This industrial textile-to-textile recycling test of several tons of post-consumer PET is one of the first of its kind under representative industrial conditions, paving the way for large-scale industrial chemical recycling of textile polyester.

This innovative process can be advantageously installed at industrial sites around the world that produce polyester for the textile industry, thereby enabling the substitution of fossil-based raw materials with their recycled equivalents.

The technology, already proven and commercialised for recycling all PET packaging, including food-contact applications, is now validated for textile use under an exclusive license granted by IFPEN/JEPLAN to Axens worldwide to any industrial player wishing to develop local or regional textile-to-textile loops.

In a world where volumes of textile wastes are rapidly increasing and where textile-to-textile recycling remains limited, this semi-industrial test provides concrete proof that a circular production of polyester can now be rapidly implemented on a significant scale, from post-consumer waste streams.

The technology, already proven and commercialised for recycling all PET packaging, including food-contact applications, is now validated for textile use under an exclusive license granted by IFPEN/JEPLAN to Axens worldwide to any industrial player wishing to develop local or regional textile-to-textile loops.