The US group Circ is poised to invest approximately €450m in building an industrial-scale facility to recycle polycotton textiles in Saint-Avold, France. These plans were announced in mid-May at the Choose France Summit, a regular event organised by the government to present major international projects in France.
The new facility is to process up to 70,000 tonnes of waste textiles each year starting in 2028. A Circ spokesperson told EUWID that the project was currently in the planning and application phase, commenting that "technical validation, site selection, consultations with stakeholder groups and the first funding applications have been completed”.
The project is to be funded through a combination of equity and debt, supported by national and regional grants and guarantees, including the Strategic Projects Guarantee from the French state. Circ’s CEO, Peter Majeranowski, described the facility as a turning point for the industry. "Now, most of the clothing produced is a blend of polyester and cotton, and that makes it very difficult to recycle," he told the news agency Reuters. He said that the company used hydrothermal technology to separate the two types of fibre efficiently and without harming quality....
