INNOVATION | POST-INDUSTRIAL RECYCLING


Right: Lululemon partnered with Samsara Eco to make this anorak from enzymatically recycled polyester


guishes it from other forms of waste disposal.” The bill aims to standardise recycling definitions and technology adoption in the US. While it covers the broader plastics landscape, it includes incen- tives for innovation in post-industrial waste recycling, especially where advanced recycling tech is applied. Public information about the bill, although limited, provides a definition of “post-use plastic” that indicates the bill extends to PIR: “The term ‘post-use plastic’ means a pre-consumer recovered material or a post-consumer recovered material that a) contains plastic derived from a residential, municipal, industrial, community, or commercial source; b) is not mixed with hazardous waste except to the extent allowed by the national plastic recycling standards; and c) is in a form acceptable for mechanical recycling and advanced recycling.” Whether the bill will ever progress through the new Congress is – at a time of tumult and unpredictability in US policy – a matter for clairvoyants. One area with huge potential for PIR development is clothing production. Fashion is a wasteful business. Fickle tastes mean that garments that last a lifetime are the privilege of an idiosyncratic and well-healed minority. It is estimated that every year 40% of global clothing produc- tion – some 60bn items – goes unsold. Plastic materials dominate the industry, with a 60:40 split between plastics (including polyester and polyamide) and natural fibres.


Textile material According to a white paper published by a SaaS textile recycling company, Reverse Resources – the result of an interview with 100 suppliers at all levels of the supply chain in China and Bangladesh – pre- consumer waste in the fashion industry (such as scrap from cutting and overstock) amounts for between 25 and 50% of all purchased material. So what can you do with scrap textile material? In the case of athletic fashion brand Lululemon, it has partnered with an Australian plastics recycling startup. Samsara Eco, which has developed an enzymatic recycling process, was borne out of Australian National University in Canberra, in late 2021. Samsara Eco has raised AUS$100m in a Series A+ round, adding investors like Lululemon, Wollemi Capital, Hitachi Ventures, and Titanium Ventures. Existing backers Main Sequence and


16 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | May/June 2025


Temasek led the round, joined by DCVC. Main Sequence now holds 25% of Samsara, Temasek 12%, and Woolworths’ W23 fund 10%. Samsara previously raised AUS$54m in 2022. It operates a proof-of-concept site in Canberra and has built a AUS$25m R&D facility in Queanbeyan. Plans are underway for a large-scale recycling plant in Southeast Asia by 2026, aiming to recycle 1.5m tonnes of plastic annually by 2030. In April 2024, Samsara Eco and Lululemon launched the first product made with enzymatically recycled polyester: the limited-edition Packable Anorak jacket. Made from mixed plastic waste, production scraps, end-of-life Lululemon apparel, and converted carbon emissions, the jacket is now available online in Australia, the US, and Canada. Polyester accounts for around 80% of the synthetic fibre market, yet most discarded items end up in landfill or the environment. Samsara’s patent-pending EosEco technology uses enzymes, developed through AI and biophysics, to break down waste into monomers, which can then be used for polyester production to create new products like the Packable Anorak.


Circular journey


“You can’t solve the climate crisis until you solve the plastics crisis and putting an end to fashion waste is critical,” said Paul Riley, CEO and founder of Samsara Eco.


“Over 90% of fashion waste is currently a one-way ticket to incineration or landfill. Our latest work with Lululemon shows the potential to give clothes an infinite life and prevent textiles from ending up in landfills.”


“Our vision is to scale these technologies to


address textile waste across our entire supply chain,” said Yogendra Dandapure, Vice President, raw materials innovation at Lululemon. “This capsule product is a first step along this journey, helping us test and learn as we continue to advance circularity, which signals exciting possibili- ties for all industries looking to shift to more circular models.” Continuing the theme of post-industrial fabric


recycling, Project Re:Claim is a collaboration between the Salvation Army Trading Company and Project Plan B, which has established what they claim to be Europe’s first commercial-scale polyester textile recycling system. Utilising the ISEC Evo system from Pure Loop, the facility processes


www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com


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