Zara owner signs three year recycled polyester deal
Zara owner Inditex has teamed up with Ambercycle, a US based material science company, to help scale textile to textile recycled polyester.
As part of a three-year agreement, Inditex will buy a significant portion of Ambercycle’s annual production of Cycora, a material made from post-industrial and post-consumer polyester waste, for more than €70 million.
Inditex said the move will support the construction of Ambercycle’s first commercial-scale textile regeneration factory and will help to make circular materials more widely available in the fashion supply chain.
Production at the new facility is expected to begin around 2025 with Cycora continuing to be incorporated in Inditex products over the following three years.
The collaboration has also included Zara Athleticz launching its first capsule collection in collaboration with Ambercycle. The clothing range includes technical pieces that have been made with up to 50% Cycora content.
Inditex is working towards having 100% of its textile products to be made exclusively from materials with a smaller environmental footprint by 2030.
Javier Losada, Inditex’s chief sustainability officer, said: “At Inditex we are committed to achieving circularity in the fashion industry. We want to drive innovation to scale up new solutions, processes and materials to achieve textile to textile recycling.
“Ambercycle’s groundbreaking molecular regeneration technology transforms end-of-life textiles into new materials, effectively reducing waste and emissions in the production cycle.”
