Posted by Alfiya Yermukasheva
18 September 2025Written by Shelley Kotze, University of Plymouth
As part of the Future Fibres Network Plus Townhall #2, our Plus Pot project with Project Plan B focused on one of the pressing challenges in fashion sustainability: moving towards fibre-to-fibre polyester recycling.
Why Fibre-to-Fibre Polyester Recycling?
Polyester is the most widely used fibre in the global textile industry, but it comes with a heavy environmental cost. Most recycled polyester (rPET) currently on the market comes from plastic bottles, not from textiles themselves. While this reduces plastic waste, it doesn’t address the problem of textile waste—millions of tonnes of discarded clothing that often end up in landfill or incineration.
Fibre-to-fibre recycling offers a more circular solution by turning old textiles back into new textiles, keeping fibres in use for longer and reducing the reliance on virgin polyester derived from fossil fuels. It’s a crucial step toward creating a closed-loop system where clothing can truly become part of a sustainable cycle.
The Activity: “I would buy more recycled polyester if…”
At the Townhall, we wanted to open up a conversation about what consumers and stakeholders actually think when it comes to recycled polyester. We asked attendees to respond to a simple but powerful prompt:
“I would buy more recycled polyester if…”
Participants wrote their answers on bunting flags, which we displayed during the event. This created a colourful and thought-provoking installation (see photos and video below).
The responses were then transcribed to help us better understand consumer perceptions, motivations, and concerns.
What Did People Say?
The bunting revealed a wide range of perspectives. Some participants focused on performance and feel:
Others were more concerned with trust and transparency:
The issue of feedstock source came up repeatedly. Many attendees expressed a preference for textile-to-textile recycling over bottle-to-fibre:
Price and accessibility were also recurring themes:
Finally, some responses reflected deeper scepticism about polyester itself, regardless of whether it is recycled:
What Does This Tell Us?
The bunting exercise highlighted both opportunities and barriers for fibre-to-fibre polyester recycling.
Perhaps most importantly, the activity exposed a knowledge gap: people want to know what recycled polyester actually is, where it comes from, and whether it can be recycled again. This points to the need for clearer communication from industry and further research into the full lifecycle of recycled fibres.
What Next?
For us, this activity underscored that consumer perception is just as critical as technical innovation in achieving circularity. Developing fibre-to-fibre recycling technology is essential, but so is building trust and clarity around it.
The insights from this exercise will feed into our ongoing collaboration with Project Plan B, informing both the technical development of fibre-to-fibre recycling and the way we communicate its benefits to wider audiences.
By combining innovation, transparency, and consumer engagement, we can help ensure that fibre-to-fibre polyester recycling is not just possible, but also desirable and impactful.
