Mechanical recycling via shredding and grinding breaks fibers, requiring blends with 70–80% virgin material to prevent pilling and tearing. Bottle-to-bottle recycling into new polyester became dominant after Patagonia’s early-1990s push, and by the start of the decade most recycled polyester came from old bottles. Chemical recycling aims to dissolve fibers into base chemical building blocks using solvents, enabling “circular” textile-to-textile reuse without quality loss in principle. Fast-fashion brands including Gap, H&M, and Levi’s have signed multiyear deals with chemical recycling startups, and Nike agreed to source circular polyester from Syre and Loop Industries. Research indicates virgin-quality polyester is technically possible and methanolysis can preserve quality through repeated recycling, but textile-to-textile recycling is limited by suitable, clean, well-sorted polyester feedstock availability.
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