H&M Group and Vargas Holding launch Syre, a JV to scale textile-to-textile recycled polyester in Sweden; H&M secures offtake agreement with Syre worth US$600M over seven years

H&M Group and Vargas Holding, both based in Stockholm, Sweden, announced the founding of Syre, a new venture to scale textile-to-textile recycled polyester (rPET).

The co-founded venture, also backed by TPG Rise Climate, aims to rapidly scale textile-to-textile recycling of polyester, and contribute to a more sustainable textile industry. H&M Group has secured an offtake agreement with Syre worth a total of $600 million over seven years, covering a significant share of H&M Group’s long-term need for rPET, which is currently primarily sourced from rPET bottle-to-textile recycling.

Through Syre, H&M Group aims to contribute to a meaningful shift in the industry by moving away from virgin polyester and toward rPET as a closed-loop alternative.

“The new venture Syre is an important step on H&M Group’s journey to integrate circularity across our business. With his solution to rapidly scale textile-to-textile recycling, we want to continue to drive and inspire more industry players to join us in closing the loop and accelerating towards a more sustainable future,” says Daniel Ervér, CEO of H&M Group.

H&M Group’s goal is to have 100% of materials either recycled or sourced in a more sustainable way by 2030, with a subgoal of 30% recycled materials by 2025. As the company is moving closer to achieving the target of 30% recycled materials by 2025, the new goal is to aim for 50% recycled by 2030.

Syre will aim to provide a rPET yarn with equivalent quality to virgin polyester but with a lower impact on the planet. Syre is building a production plant in North Carolina, U.S., which is set to start operation this year. Then, the manufacturing process and technology will be scaled up for global expansion. Within 10 years, Syre aspires to have 12 plants operating to produce more than 3 million metric tons of rPET.

“Syre marks the start of the great textile shift. We envision a world where every textile fiber sees a new day. By implementing true textile-to-textile recycling at hyper-scale, we want to drive the transition from a linear to a circular value chain by putting textile waste to use, over and over again,” says Dennis Nobelius, CEO of Syre.