A consortium led by French biochemistry company Carbios, with Patagonia, Puma and Salomon as brand partners, has produced high-quality recycled polyester T-shirts from complex textile and plastic waste using existing industrial equipment across Europe. Carbios announced the result in a statement and says the process is ready for deployment at industrial scale.

The demonstration matters for sourcing teams because it addresses the long-standing quality gap in recycled polyester. Carbios used its enzymatic recycling technology to break down textile waste and complex plastic waste into monomers whose quality and performance standards compete with petrochemical-derived materials. Selenis, a premium copolyester supplier based in Portugal, then repolymerised those monomers into more than one ton of high-quality r-PET, branded EnzyTex, designed for seamless integration into existing production lines.

From there, the material moved through a conventional European textile supply chain. Antex spun the r-PET into yarn on its industrial production lines in Spain. Henitex knitted it into interlock fabric on industrial equipment in France. Teintures et Apprêts Danjoux dyed it in an industrial bath in France, and Chamatex Group manufactured the finished garments in France.

The consortium spans the entire textile value chain, from polymerisation and spinning through knitting, dyeing and garment manufacturing, alongside a list of European industrial partners.

Carbios CEO Benoît Grenot framed the achievement as proof that enzymatic recycling can meet the highest standards in textiles. "By converting complex waste streams into high purity building blocks for the production of recycled polyester, we are proving that circularity is already an operational reality ready for deployment at industrial scale," he said.

Howard Williams, director global innovation in apparel and accessories at Puma, confirmed the technical result from the brand side. "Carbios has demonstrated that complex PET waste can be recycled into high-quality polyester fibers under existing industrial conditions and repurposed into high-quality products," he said.

Performance data from the trial supports the substitution case. The resulting fibres showed full compatibility with conventional textile manufacturing processes and delivered mechanical strength, dyeability and colour fastness equivalent to virgin polyester, according to the consortium.

For brands weighing recycled-content commitments against performance specs, that equivalence is the operative fact. Fibre-to-fibre recycling has historically struggled to deliver r-PET that holds up in high-performance applications, pushing brands toward bottle-based recycled polyester and its well-documented supply constraints.

Salomon CEO Guillaume Meyzenq said the production run opens commercial opportunities for the brand by demonstrating the industrial potential of repurposing textile waste. "The success of this consortium highlights the power of collective intelligence to tackle one of our industry's most complex challenges," he said. "By combining our expertise across the entire value chain, we have demonstrated that circularity for high-performance textiles is becoming an industrial reality."

He added: "Together, we have proven that innovative recycling technologies can transform complex waste into high-quality materials without ever compromising on technical performance. For Salomon, this milestone opens significant opportunities to scale circular solutions and shape a more responsible future for outdoor sports apparel."

The entire garment was manufactured in Europe, which the consortium presents as evidence that circular textile manufacturing can scale without quality trade-offs.

For sourcing and sustainability directors, the decision the news forces is straightforward: enzymatically recycled polyester from complex waste streams is now a verified, industrially compatible input with documented virgin-equivalent performance. Brands with recycled-content targets, EU ecodesign obligations or extended producer responsibility exposure should assess whether supply agreements with Carbios-style biorecycling capacity belong in their 2025-2026 material roadmaps — and whether European-produced r-PET offers a compliance and traceability advantage over Asian recycled polyester supply.