{"id":31437,"date":"2026-03-13T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.engineernewsnetwork.com\/blog\/?p=31437"},"modified":"2026-03-09T10:56:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T10:56:21","slug":"recovering-and-regenerating-polyester-and-cellulose-from-end-of-life-textiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineernewsnetwork.com\/blog\/recovering-and-regenerating-polyester-and-cellulose-from-end-of-life-textiles\/","title":{"rendered":"Recovering and regenerating polyester and cellulose from end-of-life textiles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Accelerator is a textile-to-fibre recycling process from Worn Again Technologies<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Textile-to-Fibre Accelerator plant \u2013 which the company has started up in Winterthur, Switzerland \u2013 showcases Worn Again\u2019s proprietary chemical recycling technology at scale, and regenerates polyester and cellulose from end-of-life textiles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than 1% of clothes are recycled. Meanwhile, textile production already exceeds a staggering 120 million tonnes per annum, a figure that continues to grow, exacerbated by consumer demand for fast fashion. The time is now to scale solutions designed to tackle the textile waste crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fashion industry is at a pivotal point,\u201d said Michael Weiss, CEO of Worn Again Technologies. \u201cBlended polycottons, once nearly impossible to recycle efficiently, are now being reimagined through our groundbreaking process. This technology maintains material value, minimises waste, and unlocks significant economic opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From laboratory to scaled application<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Accelerator represents the evolution from laboratory innovation to industrial demonstration. In recent years, Worn Again has refined the process chemistry and engineering design \u2013 optimising solvent systems and separation techniques \u2013 to enable efficient, high-purity recovery of polyester and cellulose fibres. Crucially, the process recovers over 95% of solvents used, reinforcing environmental responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technology\u2019s multi-solvent approach allows effective separation of complex materials, including dyes and elastane, which are major challenges for traditional recycling methods. Since 2024, the company achieved breakthroughs by successfully spinning fibres from recovered outputs, reaching new heights in product purity and quality \u2013 critical milestones underpinning the deployment of larger-scale operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ongoing scale-up engineering activities continue to enable process efficiencies that weren\u2019t feasible in the laboratory \u2013 enhancing the value proposition of the recycling technology as it scales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Accelerator plant is being delivered in modules. The first module is to recover spinnable polyester from waste textiles, including post-consumer polycotton blends sourced from Switzerland, the EU & UK. The recovered, Circular Polyester, will soon be available for downstream piloting & product application testing. The next module (which has entered detailed engineering) will produce Next-Gen Cellulosic Fibres and other advanced cellulosic materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advancing towards commercial deployment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Accelerator provides a platform for testing the technology\u2019s real-world applications. Partner companies will be able to evaluate their feedstocks and validate the process across diverse textile streams, generating critical data to refine and scale operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worn Again is progressing towards a full-scale manufacturing facility designed to process significant volumes of textile waste and produce high-value circular products. \u201cThe Accelerator is a critical asset for building towards our first commercial plant.\u201d said Toby Moss, Chief Commercial Officer, \u201cTesting at this scale will expand our solutions to a broader range of feedstocks, ensuring that we stay ahead by valorising more material streams and creating a growing portfolio of high-value, downstream product applications.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Accelerator is a textile-to-fibre recycling process from Worn Again Technologies. A Textile-to-Fibre Accelerator plant \u2013 which the company has started up in Winterthur, Switzerland \u2013 showcases Worn Again\u2019s proprietary chemical recycling technology at scale, and regenerates polyester and cellulose from end-of-life textiles. Less than 1% of clothes are recycled. Meanwhile, textile production already exceeds …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31438,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14507,14508,14506],"class_list":["post-31437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-process","tag-accelerator","tag-chemical-recycling","tag-worn-again-technologies"],"yoast_head":"\nRecovering and regenerating polyester and cellulose from end-of-life textiles - Engineer News Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engineernewsnetwork.com\/blog\/recovering-and-regenerating-polyester-and-cellulose-from-end-of-life-textiles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Recovering and regenerating polyester and cellulose from end-of-life textiles - Engineer News Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Accelerator is a textile-to-fibre recycling process from Worn Again Technologies. 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