Will uncertainty in global supply chains created by tariffs create opportunities for hemp in the textile industry?

By Aaron Nesser

China has long dominated hemp textiles. It is the number one grower and processor.

Since industrial hemp’s legalization in 2018, the United States has become the world’s third-largest grower of hemp, but China still dominates the critical process of converting raw hemp into textile fiber.

This dynamic means that some U.S.-grown hemp is shipped to China for processing before it is incorporated into apparel destined for U.S. and European markets — a complex global loop that new tariffs, even at just 30 percent, are now disrupting.

Why Now? Positioning For A Shifting Market

Hemp is hardly new to American soil; it was once the number one fiber crop grown in the United States, essential for industries like shipping, defense, textiles and paper. However, shifts in technology and policy, including its later prohibition, pushed it aside.

The 2018 Farm Bill brought a resurgence of interest, but the initial hype quickly met reality. Farmers rushed to grow hemp, but with limited processing infrastructure, there were few buyers, and many growers got burned.

Since then, companies have quietly built the needed infrastructure, processing U.S.-grown hemp into products like insulation and building materials.

Why might this tariff-driven moment differ? Key parts of the supply chain are now in place. More farmers are growing industrial hemp, and volume processors like Dallas-based Panda Biotech LLC and IND Hemp, Benton, Mont., are contracting directly with farmers to ensure a plentiful supply of hemp materials, including the key raw ingredient for textile fiber.

From Missed Expectations To Real Resilience

During hemp’s hype-phase from 2018–2022, hopes ran high that it could be a superior, sustainable substitute for cotton. However, early attempts to produce hemp textiles revealed significant challenges. One-hundred-percent hemp yarns failed in existing cotton mills, blends with cotton were less than ideal, and the “cottonization” process proved more complex and environmentally taxing than anticipated.

But the industry has learned from these early stumbles. After a period of recalibration, hemp now is getting beyond some of the early roadblocks and shows potential for clear economic, environmental and performance advantages.

As a crop, hemp is very productive. Compared to cotton it produces three to four times as much fiber per acre, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and can be planted and harvested two or more times per sea-son, according to the Rodale Institute. This increased productivity uses 75 percent less water¹ than cotton.

Beyond sheer output, hemp demonstrates surprising resilience as a crop. It thrives in more diverse climates than cotton, and research from University of Adelaide² shows that industrial hemp is exceptionally drought tolerant. In a warming world, where cotton crops suffer billion dollar losses due to drought and water rationing, hemp may be a way to mitigate extreme weather risk.

This resilience extends to the fiber itself. As a natural material, hemp is inherently strong, and after early disappointments with blends, it’s now proving its toughness. New, clean processing technology, especially for degumming, has advanced and is now capable of producing fiber that genuinely improves performance and comfort.

The Domestic Challenge: Bridging The Infrastructure & Technology Gap

Successfully bringing U.S. hemp textiles to market hinges on overcoming key infrastructure and processing hurdles. The American textile industry is built for short-staple cotton, and hemp is not natively compatible. To work in cotton systems, apparel-quality fiber needs extensive processing, called cottonization to create short, spinnable fibers, which usually involves chemical degumming.

This critical degumming is often outsourced to China, employing methods that face significant U.S. environ-mental and worker safety regulatory barriers from the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. This reliance on overseas processing is a primary challenge that tariffs could incentivize solving domestically.

Progress is being made on multiple fronts. Panda Biotech’s Senior Vice President of Business Development Mark D’Sa reports that the company has now made a key advancement, producing fiber for bottomweight textiles like denim and canvas. It is able to do so by bypassing degumming altogether.

For the finer, softer yarns suitable for apparel like T-shirts — where major players note historical processing and comfort challenges — Daniel Yohannes, CEO of Renaissance Fiber Inc., Winston-Salem, N.C., shared a breakthrough — a first-of-its-kind clean degumming process. According to Yohannes, the process achieves strength and softness without harsh chemistry, making it the first scalable solution in the United States for fine textiles.

The challenge now is scaling up these domestic solutions in an economically uncertain time.

Navigating Tariffs And Building The Fiber Supply Chain

Despite progress, serious hurdles still remain. The current administration’s stance is bearish on domestic textiles³, and ironically, tariffs meant to curb imports also hit the equipment crucial for building the U.S. industry. Compatibility with existing infrastructure will be an advantage.

The bellwether for success will be hemp-centric brands. Companies like Jungmaven — an apparel brand focused on using hemp in its products— and Datsusara LLC — an apparel and bag brand known for Joe Rogan’s favorite fanny pack — currently rely on established Chinese supply chains for hemp-blend apparel. The key question is if they will shift these operations — and critically, if they’ll choose producers in the United States.

A Tariff-Driven Opportunity, If Hurdles Can Be Cleared

Tariffs on Chinese goods offer a potential, if uncertain, catalyst for the U.S. hemp textile industry.

While early hype has yielded to tangible progress, realizing hemp’s full potential requires decisively bridging infrastructure gaps and scaling innovative processing to achieve market competitiveness.

Today’s economic and trade uncertainties may provide a rare opening. Seizing it, however, demands more than technical breakthroughs; sustained investment, bold innovation and strategic farm-to-fashion alliances are critical. Can the U.S. hemp industry mobilize the resources and speed required?

References:

¹ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666154320300065#bib19
² https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11104-023-06219-9
³ https://sourcingjournal.com/topics/business-news/tariff-ticker-textiles-ncto-congress-trump-ieepa-duties-1234746358/

Editor’s Note: Aaron Nesser is a scientist, designer and founder of Keep Earth Co., a strategic advisory and product development consultancy specializing in biobased materials and products. He previously directed material innovation for kelp-based textile company Keel Labs, Morrisville, N.C.

2025 Quarterly Issue II

Recycling textiles isn’t new, but investments point to a trend that is attracting interest that fits well with textiles burgeoning sustainability mindset.

TW Special Report

Recently, Textile World editors have observed an increasing volume of reports of textile recycling projects taking shape. From the inception of new companies and partnerships made, to new plant announcements. When sustainability entered the textile lexicon not that long ago, questions swirled as to what it really meant for the industry. Was sustainability just a fad, or was it the foundation for a new mindset in textile manufacturing?

From product design to the end of a product’s life and disposal — could the industry pivot from largely a cradle-to-grave mentality to a cradle-to-cradle mindset? Was circularity a topic that made for great speeches and presentations, or was it the future of the textile industry?

Recycling as a topic started to take on steam as a sustainability solution once basic challenges were addressed such as which products were reason-able targets for recycling, how could more products fit into a recycling model, and could recycling scale into a manageable manufacturing model.

Those questions are still not fully answered, but this round up highlights just some of the recent investments that go a long way to show that recycling textiles is no longer just speeches and presentations — there are real people, real companies and real investments focused on a circular textile future.

The Hub

Paris-based Reju™ keeps making news. Featured in a recent issue of TW (see “Advancing Textile Circularity: Reju™’s Vision For Sustainable Polyester”, TW, 2024 Quarterly Issue IV), Arnaud Pieton, CEO of Technip Energies, the France-based parent company of Reju, stated: “What has been holding the world back in textile circularity is not a lack of demand for textile recycling, but the lack of a solution that makes recycling of textiles economical on an industrial scale.”

Recently, Reju announced that it has selected the Chemelot Industrial Park for its first industrial scale regeneration center. Located in Sittard, the Netherlands, Chemelot is known as a European industrial park and innovation hub. This announcement follows the opening of Regeneration Hub Zero in Frankfurt late last year.

The company has stated that the new site, named “Regeneration Hub One,” aims to “… regenerate the equivalent of 300 million articles annually that would otherwise end up as textile waste, resulting in a production capacity of 50,000 metric tons of rBHET per year and will then be repolymerized into Reju PET.”

The goal is an output of Reju Polyester, originating from textile waste, that may be reintroduced into the textile lifecycle, through the textile supply chain and into the hands of consumers.

Reju touts its landmark achievements since launch to include:

• Opening the first Regeneration Hub in Frankfurt;
• Partnering with Goodwill and Waste Management in the United States to will advance textile recycling in North America;
• A partnership with Nouvelles Fibres Textiles to automatically sort clothing and disruptors such as zippers and buttons;
• A partnership with Cibutex in Europe to establish an ecosystem among member companies; and
• A partnership with Rematrix in Europe to secure sustainable textile supply.

As Reju continues its recycling mission, it is clearly a company to monitor for textile recycling innovation and achieving scale.

The Polycotton Challenger

Headquartered in Danville, Va., Circ recently made the news when it announced a new, first-of-its-kind facility to be built in Saint-Avold, France. The facility will recycle previously considered unrecyclable post-consumer and post-industrial polycotton textiles. The facility is targeting a processing capacity of 70,000 metric tons of polycotton material per year.

Regarding the announcement, Circ President Peter Majeranowski, said: “This is the moment we’ve been building toward since Circ was founded. Our first full-scale facility will push circular fashion over the critical tipping point in the global economy, proving that the future of textiles can be decarbonized, closer to waste-free, and regenerative by design. It’s not just a major milestone for Circ, but a breakthrough for the entire circular economy at a time when the planet urgently needs scalable climate solutions.”

Circ has patented hydrothermal technology that separates and recovers both polyester and cotton — an innovative technology that address common poly cotton blended fabrics that are said to make up 77 percent of the global textile market.

Syre

In October 2024, Fayetteville, N.C.-based Selenis — supplier of co-polyesters for a diverse range of applications that is part of the IMG Group — and Stockholm-based Syre, a company focused on hyper-scaling textile-to-textile recycling, announced a strategic partnership to establish a textile-to-textile recycling plant in Cedar Creek, N.C., set to be operational by mid-2025. It is estimated the plant will be able to deliver up to 10,000 metric tons of circular polyester annually.

Syre has big plans. According to the company — founded in 2023 —this announcement keeps it on track with its first “blueprint recycling plant” in 2024 to be operational in 2025. Syre plans to start construction of its first gigascale plant, which will be capable of producing 150,000 to 250,000 metric tons of circular polyester, in 2027. Syre’s future plans focus on the construction of multiple plants worldwide. The goal is to produce 3 million metric tons of circular polyester resulting in more than 15 million metrics tons of carbon dioxide equivalents abated in 2032.

RE&UP’ing Their Game

The Netherlands-based RE&UP has its heritage with Türkiye-based Sanko Textile, known for yarn and fabrics for fashion applications.

RE&UP recently announced a partnership with Italy-based Marchi & Fildi S.p.A. to co-develop a new generation of premium recycled cotton yarns. The collaboration— currently at pre-industrial stage — combines RE&UP’s cutting-edge textile-to-textile recycling technology with Marchi & Fildi’s expertise in sustainable yarn development and manufacturing.

Marchi & Fildi produces yarns for fashion, furnishings, and technical end-uses, and has a long history in Italy’s Biella textiles district. The company has grown into an international group with plants in in Italy, Turkey and Brazil.

The partnership focuses on the codevelopment of a “new generation of premium recycled cotton yarns.”

Ambercycle Forms More Partnerships

Los Angeles-based Ambercycle continues to expand its recycling mission. Established in 2015, the company uses molecular regeneration technology and produces a flag-ship regenerated polyester product called cycora®.

Ambercycle has a track record of significant partnerships with companies including South Korea-based Hyosung TNC and Taiwan-based Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corp.

Recently the company joined with Highsun Holding Group (HSCC). Co-founder and CEO of Ambercycle, Shay Sethi, said of the partnership with HSCC: “Scaling textile-to-textile solutions requires deep partnerships, innovation, and development of the global apparel value chain to work in harmony with the planet. By partnering with HSCC, we’re establishing a foundational partnership for circular systems to work at scale. This is how we turn circularity from an industry-wide ambition into a global reality.”

Renewing Cellulose Fiber

Circulose AB, with its history beginning with Sweden-based textile recycling company Renewcell, has recently reached a strategic partner-ship agreement with China-based cellulose fiber producer Tangshan Sanyou Chemical Fiber.

According to Circulose, this collaboration marks a significant milestone in the commercialization and scaling of CIRCULOSE® fiber, while also driving Tangshan Sanyou’s brand toward greater international recognition. The two companies will work together to ensure that ReVisco™ fibers, produced using CIRCULOSE pulp, maintain a focus on “quality, supply capacity, and pricing, thereby advancing both brands in the high-quality and innovative development of circular and renewable materials.”

“Tangshan Sanyou has always believed in the strong potential of recycling cotton textile waste, which is essential for fostering a green and sustainable industry,” said Zhang Dongbin, executive vice president of Tangshan Sanyou Chemical Fiber. “We have unwavering confidence in the market potential of CIRCULOSE and its new strategic direction, and we are excited about our future collaboration.”

Separating Elastic From Nylon

Earlier this year, Italy-based Aquafil announced, “the world’s first demonstration plant capable of chemically separating elastic fibers from nylon.”

This innovative technology addresses the complex challenge of elastic/nylon separation, which according to the company, opens the door to new possibilities in recycling and circularity.

According to Aquafil, in 2013 it partnered with the Georgia Institute of Technology to study solutions for recycling mixed fibers, which in its words was “a task long deemed insurmountable.”

In 2022, with a new patent filing, a refined process brought the company closer to a solution. Nylon recovered using the process will be regenerated at Aquafil’s ECONYL® plant.

Of this achievement, Aquafil CEO Giulio Bonazzi said, “This milestone demonstrates how cutting-edge technology can tackle even the toughest environmental challenges — turning waste into value and advancing the shift to a truly circular economy.”

Recovering Poly Cotton Blends Without Separation

Spain-based Recover™, a producer of recycled cotton fiber and cotton fiber blends, announced the opening of a manufacturing facility in Vietnam late last year.

The 14,000-square-meter plant will utilize Recover’s recycling technology initially operating with two state-of-the-art recycling lines. Annual production capacity of 10,000 metric tons is anticipated.

One of the facility’s primary products will be RMix, Recover’s recycling solution for cotton-polyester blends, which eliminates the need to separate fibers, overcoming a long-standing industry challenge in polycotton recycling, according to the company.

The location in Vietnam’s Dong Nai province was chosen because of Vietnam’s substantial role in the global textile industry as the third-largest textile exporter worldwide. Recover reported: “This latest facility in Vietnam represents the next step in the company’s ambitious expansion plans, aiming to expand to new global markets.”

Recover’s first expansion beyond Spain was a second plant in 2022 located in Bangladesh.

Samsara Eco On The Move

Samsara Eco recently announced it had secured a commercialization partner. The Australia-based company, recently profiled in TW, (see “Samsara Eco: Commercializing Nylon 6,6 Recycling,” TW, 2025 Quarterly Issue I) is partnering with KBR Sustainable Technology Solutions to design its first-of-a-kind plastics and textile enzymatic recycling plant, which is set for completion in early 2028.

According to Samsara, “Samsara Eco’s enzymatic recycling technology aims to create a continuous recycling loop for some of the most common types of plastic and synthetic fiber materials that have traditionally been difficult or impossible to recycle. Powered by Samsara Eco’s proprietary AI platform, the company’s patented enzymes break down plastic to its original building blocks (monomers) which aim to allow plastics to be continuously remanufactured into new products without degradation in quality and with a low carbon footprint.”

Under the agreement, KBR will perform a front-end engineering design, or pre-FEED, for the project by the end of the second quarter of 2025. The company’s technical and commercial experts will then deliver a FEED engineering package for the process design to build a 20,000 metric tons per year commercial facility for nylon 6,6.

“KBR is uniquely equipped to deliver world-class solutions that help our customers bring sustainable technology to market, and we are thrilled to support Samsara Eco on this unique opportunity,” Jay Ibrahim, president, KBR.

Notably, last year, Samsara introduced the first enzymatically recycled nylon 6,6 product in partnership with clothing brand lululemon — the iconic Swiftly Tech Long-Sleeve Top. It also launched the first product made from enzymatically recycled polyester, creating lululemon’s limited edition Packable Anorak jacket.

Accelerating Circularity

It is hard to discuss the impact of textile recycling without mentioning Campbell Hall, N.Y. based Accelerating Circularity.

Founded in 2019, the nonprofit organization has been on a mission to refashion the textile industry with a focus on new supply chains and business models that turn textile waste into mainstream raw materials and, with a stakeholder approach, set in motion a circular textile economy.

Accelerating Circularity achievements in building coalitions, receiving notable grants, and publishing findings are worth commending.

Recently, the Wrangler x Accelerating Circularity jeans collaboration was announced in conjunction with Walmart.

According to Accelerating Circularity: “The Wrangler x Accelerating Circularity jeans contain 26-percent recycled cotton — 50-percent post-consumer, 50-percent post-industrial — alongside virgin cotton and elastane for stretch, setting a new bench-mark for post-consumer recycled content in commercially available denim. This project was made possible through collaboration across the textile supply chain trial members, including collection by Bank & Vogue (post-consumer) and Martex (post-industrial); mechanical recycling by Giotex & Estopas; yarn production by Parkdale; and fabric production by Cone Denim.”

Karla Magruder, founder of Accelerating Circularity, commented on the project saying: “This launch is a proof point that circularity is not just a concept — it’s happening now. Through collaboration across the supply chain, we’ve shown that used textiles can become a viable feed-stock for new products at scale.”

As brands, retailers, and manufacturers take interest and participate, recycling textiles may just be no longer just be a topic of speeches and presentations, and circular textile future might just be taking hold.

2025 Quarterly Issue II

Established in 2014, Zimmer America Recycling Solutions has found a foothold providing recycling equipment focused on PET — from single machines to complete recycling systems.

By James M. Borneman, Editor In Chief

To many in the textile industry, the name Zimmer is synonymous with textile printing. The family’s contribution to rotary screen printing is notable, and later developments for digital printing are significant.

More recently, Roland Zimmer has charted a new course — one focused on bringing technologies to bear for the daunting task of plastic recycling.
In 1970, Zimmer established roots in the United States as a subsidiary of Zimmer Austria functioning as Johannes Zimmer Service and Sales, the U.S. branch of the Austria-based headquarters. Zimmer America Corp. was established in 1985 by Roland J.P. Zimmer.

Rotary textile printing is a significant segment in the global textile industry, and throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s was the gold standard for applying artist’s designs to fabrics in apparel, bedding, home furnishings and military apparel, among other applications. Zimmer’s rotary printing machines, with their “open bearing” design, evolved with innovations that brought speed, efficiency and flexibility to the robust textile printing segment. Later developments brought digital printing to the fore with transformational change, and in the context of the printed textile segment, revolutionized the way textiles are printed.

In a turn of the page, Roland established Zimmer America Recycling Solutions in 2014. This marked a new direction for Zimmer that built on the company’s industrial solutions mentality of representing, selling, installing, and servicing industrial machinery and technology.

Whether for industrial cleaning, plastic technologies, textile solutions or consulting, Roland Zimmer has embraced a broad array of opportunities that benefit from his core competencies.

He recently sat down with Textile World to share some of the challenges and benefits of his textile legacy and the many opportunities that lie ahead.

TW: You have a long and very personal history in textiles. When did you develop an interest in recycling and how did it complement your experience bringing textile technologies to industry?

Zimmer: Good question and it really happened in a kind of natural way. In a sense, you know the history, the demand for textile machinery was steadily going down and sometimes faster than acceptable.

Since the late 80s early 90s, I was faced with the fact that textile machinery was less and less in demand and we had to look around, of course, for some other machinery. I made a connection with somebody that worked in the machinery industry who did washing lines for textile washing — continuous wash ranges. There was another company developing washing lines for plastics, and I had a personal connection to a man who joined this new company. He opened my eyes to this completely new industry with plastic recycling washing lines, and I looked at that and said, “you know, it’s interesting.”
I knew nothing about plastic recycling, but I thought there was a very strong parallel here.

TW: What does this new direction share with your textile experience, and what is different?

Zimmer: The parallel is that it’s machinery that has something in the beginning, coming in — not virgin like the printing machine — but a plastic, in this case, plastic to be recycled.
And then there’s a process that takes place, and it’s quite a complex process that takes place in the washing line.

There is a plastic washing line, and at the end something else comes out and then in the middle, you have bearings and rolls and all kinds of things that I was very familiar with from the textile printing industry. It’s another process in another industry, but it has an infeed, it has an exit, and it has a process in between, so I was able mentally make the bridge to completely understand what we are talking about.

TW: So, you were comfortable with the connection? Controlling a process, for example?

Zimmer: The connection is that we use the same Siemens S 7 PLC for controlling the process that we were using on the printing machines as is used on the recycling equipment to control the process.

Another interesting aspect was that some of the folks I was dealing with for years, especially the carpet manufacturers in Dalton, Ga., were very active in recycling. They discovered plastic as a resource for making polyester fiber out of recycled plastic, and you know that right now they are some of the large players in the plastic recycling world because they buy plastic bottles and have their own processing of making fibers. Then these fibers end up in carpet.

This was a market I knew very well from the carpet printing market and all of a sudden, it turns out these carpet printers are not just carpet printers using the Zimmer CHROMOJET, but they’re also fiber makers using recycled plastic bottles to make carpet. It was a very astonishing sequence of events that led me into the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling world.

TW: What recycling technologies is Zimmer America focused on and how are is the technology used?

Zimmer: It starts really at the core of the recycling of PET.This is a widely used plastic material in the container industry for bottles — so every plastic bottle of Coke, Pepsi and water, and anything else you can think of is basically PET because this material won the battle against other plastics for this application.

The advantage is that PET has a 100 percent recyclable property in the sense that out of a recycled, shredded, pelletized and extruded plastic, I can make another plastic bottle. This 100 percent recyclability is what makes it so attractive.

TW: In the beginning, what machinery interested you?

Zimmer: A Germany-based company called STF developed their own recycling. Interesting, not only making machinery, but also developed as a recycler.

The line of machinery and the way STF recycles PET plastic is mechanical, so there’s some water involved, there is some friction involved and transportation from one tank to another involved, but it’s a very, very simple process. It’s basically an oversized washing machine, not unlike a washing machine at your house.This basically mechanical process is relatively simple, and it takes a little time, some heat, some water, and at the end of the day you’re washing the flakes of a plastic bottle to a clean state.

Then there is another process — solid state polymerization, or SSP —that uses heat, time and a vacuum to remove all impurities embedded in the PET after the washing. The molecular structure of PET is rebuilt because overtime, and with some ultraviolet exposure, these molecular chains break.

Another important part is reestablishing and adjusting the intrinsic viscosity, or IV. This must be corrected in the PET before it becomes pellets in order to make new bottles out of it. Because the bottle blowing and filling lines are very high-speed processes and things happen very quickly. For that reason, the IV must be exactly correct.

So, at the end of the day, the recycled PET and the virgin PET molecule look exactly the same and the properties are also the same. That’s why it’s 100 percent recyclable, because you can make another bottle out of it.

TW: How was a relationship with STF developed?

Zimmer: As I came to know STF, I also found out that they are not present in the United States. When I visited the first time I said “Look, I’m very familiar with you being a European, with what you do here as European machinery manufacturers, and I’m very familiar with this American market. And I noticed that you have no activity in the United States yet.” I told STF that I would very much like to take my know-how of the U.S. market and how industrial companies buy machinery from Europe and from other industrial companies. That’s how the relationship started.

STF went for it, and they said,“Well, we are where we thought about doing something in America, but we haven’t done anything yet.” So, I said “Let me do it. I’ll do it for you.”

TW: Among others, Zimmer has taken on two large projects — one in the Dominican Republic, and one in Hilo, Hawaii. Can you share some details about these projects?

Zimmer: These two projects represent ideal customers in that both are new to recycling. These companies have different backgrounds.

The company in the Dominican Republic is in the waste space. It has waste sorting lines for household waste, so general and household waste including plastics, and they are expanding. It holds, sorts, and sells reusable and recyclable waste items. It is building a complete plant for taking the PET or the plastic content, out of the municipal household waste. Municipal waste consists of a lot of plastic. There’s some paper and organic matter also, but PET — as a plastic for all kinds of containers — has become such a major portion of household waste. More and more people are recognizing that if we already sort the waste and now here we have all this plastic, why don’t we go the next step and take the plastic and make a new product — for example, recyclable PET bottles —and that’s what this customer in the Domincan Republic is doing.

The customer in Hawaii is the premium bottled water company Waiakea. It produces water bottles every day and sells them all over the United States. It has the idea to be circular in its own production. It wants to make sure is that every bottle in Hawaii gets recycled back into a bottle. This is the first Hawaii-based PET recycling factory that we are building in Hilo towards that goal.

TW: What do you observe about the future of recycling?

Zimmer: The fact of the matter is that recycling plastic is in its very, very infancy — not only in America, but worldwide. We are producing a tremendous amount of plastic every year and it’s increasing because China is a big player now in plastic.

I think in America, the statistic is that from all plastic that is sold in various forms and shapes, including bottles and non-bottle plastic, I think we are under — way, way, way, under — 10 percent recycled.

That means that 90 percent of the plastic ends up in the landfill, and what I want is for this to change.

There are only two U.S. states that have said they will be part of the change. Obviously, I can’t change that personally, but I can be part of the change to a circular economy where we understand that plastic originates from a natural resource that is limited.

The way we should look at that resource is that whatever we make out of it — for example, plastic — should be first-of-all, easy to recycle — which a bottle is. But we should live in a world where we can maintain our enormous appetite for new plastic largely with the plastic we have already made once before and become a real circular economy. That’s the goal.

TW: What opportunities lie ahead and what part will they play in textiles?

Zimmer: The industry is now concerning itself with textile recycling for the same reason. I already spoke about carpet producers, which previously used mostly nylon. They have switched in the last 10 years and PET is now used in about 50 percent of commercial carpet, which again brings attention to the recyclability of PET.

Recycling is becoming a thing, slowly. And now textiles, since some are made using PET, are very interesting to watch.Textiles are things to be recycled, but how do you recycle textiles? It’s not easy because textiles are made from different items and a textile garment may be made using not a singular component, so maybe it’s not only PET. But I think textiles is the next frontier for recycling.

I think also that as so-called extended producer responsibility gets talked about more and more, and in the plastic world, extended producer responsibility is really becoming synonymous with a circular economy.

TW: Is extended producer responsibility (EPR) a change agent?

Zimmer: EPR is just a way to try to make the producers of things more responsible at the end of life of the products because we all realized that we can’t fill up those big holes in the earth with everything that we throw away.

So, we wait and see. This shift needs to be happening in the way we look at our resources —the continuous use of resources, not being end of life, buried in landfill etc.
Whatever you do, have the circularity of your production in mind whatever it is. We must get used to the idea that for everything we produce, the resources we use to make them have an eventual end, right?

So how can we reuse them, and not fill up a place with garbage? This world is beautiful planet, and to produce things with the idea of using those things many, many, times down the road is the way.

Editor’s Note: STF Group, with a focus on PET post-consumer bottles, is a manufacturer of plastic recycling and washing machinery and has delivered some 60 plants worldwide. Reportedly, STF recycles more than 130,000 tons of PET bottles per year into high quality flakes in its own plants in Germany and is considered one of Europe largest recyclers. Zimmer Austria continues to offer textile coating ranges, digital, flat bed and rotary screen-printing machinery and loop steamers. It is represented by Fi-Tech Inc., Midlothian,Va.

2025 Quarterly Issue II

UNIFI® is growing its stable of branded fibers with the addition of Fortisyn™.

TW Special Report

Unifi Inc., Greensboro, N.C.,has established itself as a leader in the production of recycled fibers and yarns, and most recently extended its know-how and expertise in fiber science to develop Fortisyn™. This abrasion-resistant yarn, available in a virgin nylon 6,6 or recycled REPREVE® nylon 6 version, was engineered for durability in military uniforms and tactical applications and meets ASTMD2261, ASTMD5034, and ASTMD3884 standards. Unifi notes that performance benefits and claims are based on fabric construction and product selection and these claims are reflective of 500D Fortisyn yarn testing in fabric form. Because it’s made in the United States, Fortisyn also is compliant with Berry Amendment applications.

According to Unifi, fabrics made using Fortisyn offer enhanced tear and tensile strength, and can with-stand exposure to harsh conditions and rough handling while maintaining form, function and appearance over time. “Fortisyn uses proprietary air-jet texturing technology to engineer built-in durability and abrasion resistance,” said Meredith Boyd, executive vice president and chief product officer, Unifi Inc.

According to Boyd, the two Fortisyn offerings meet differing end-product requirements. “Certain product specifications require nylon 6,6 whereas other applications, such as for rugged tactical gear, do not have polymer type specifications,” Boyd noted. “The diversity of needs in this application area led Unifi to develop Fortisyn technology in both nylon polymer types including a sustainable offering.”

Solution-Dyed Option

For enhanced colorfastness, the yarn can be supplied in solution-dyed form, which offers a broad range of color options. With its solution-dyeing capabilities, Unifi can also develop custom colors to meet specific customer needs. Solution dyeing is also a sustainable option. “The solution dyeing process, which incorporates pigments during the melt-extrusion stage, significantly reduces water and energy consumption compared to traditional dyeing methods,” Boyd noted.

Testing was performed to ensure the necessary properties are achieved for both Fortisyn variants. “Fortisyn has undergone comprehensive testing in collaboration with mills and strategic development partners,” Boyd said. “These tests, conducted at the fabric level, validate the yarn’s claims.

Fortisyn is also compatible with other Unifi yarn technologies, although any such combinations must be tested in fabric form to make sure they meet any necessary specifications.

In addition, Fortisyn made with Repreve Nylon is fully traceable using FiberPrint® U-TRUST® along with Oeko-Tex® GRS and SCS certifications for recycled content.

Enhancing The Product Line

Summing up the yarn’s value proposition, Boyd said: “Fortisyn offers a unique combination of performance, sustainability and domestic availability.”

The introduction of Fortisyn reflects Unifi’s commitment to innovation, sustainability and meeting the evolving needs of its customers. “Customers value Fortisyn for its quality, consistency and the technical support provided by Unifi,” Boyd concluded.

2025 Quarterly Issue II

The SYFA hosted a lively spring conference following its third annual fundraiser golf tournament.

TW Special Report

The Charlotte, N.C.-based Synthetic Yarn and Fabric Association (SYFA) held its 2025 spring conference at the Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel, Charlotte, N.C.

Prior to the conference, SYFA hosted its third annual golf tournament at the Rocky River Golf Course in Concord, N.C. Proving to be a popular event, some 74 golfers participated this year vying to win the team competition, as well as prizes for closest to the pin and longest drive while playing in a Captain’s Choice format. Dominating the standings again was the team from Navis TubeTex with President Will Motchar at the helm. Proceeds from the tournament support a scholarship fund for student enrolled at Gaston College in the Textile Technology program. The program was designed to educate and train students in textile manufacturing and other areas related to textiles.

The theme for this spring’s conference was “Weaving The Future: Economic Insights & Innovations.”

The first speaker in the two-day lineup was Kim Glas, president and CEO of the Washington-based National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO). Glas was fresh off a big win in Washington after President Donald Trump announced he would reform the de minimis loop-hole, something Glas had spent six years fighting for. The loophole allows some 4 million shipments a day to enter the United States with-out paying duties. Often, the shipments include illegal or unethically made products, unsafe goods and drugs such as fentanyl; and half of such shipments are estimated to be textile and apparel goods (See “A Trade Association In Action: NCTO Steps Up To The Plate,” TW, this issue, to learn more).

At the SYFA meeting, Glas celebrated the win whilst also rallying attendees to get involved noting that the textile industry needs a bigger voice in Washington and the more executives get involved, the more powerful the lobby will be.

Attendees heard from seven other speakers on a variety of topics including:

• Shannan Billings, S&P Global — “State of the World in Petrochemical;”
• Matthew Martin, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond — “Economic Outlook: On Track so Far, but with Heightened Uncertainty;”
• Chip Hartzog and Michael Rübenhagen, Oerlikon — “Staple Fiber Market & EVO Steam: Largest Staple Innovation in Decades;”
• Dr. André West, Zeis Textile Extension-Wilson College of Textiles — “The NC Textile Engine: Advancing our Nation’s Capacity for Textile Sustainability and Innovation;”
• Stephanie Rodgers, Textile Made Inc. — “IT is for Textile in Planetary Science — How Extreme Requirements are Driving Textile Innovation;”
• Matthew Kolmes, VOLT Smart Yarns/Supreme Corp. — “Wearable Tech: How Machine Learning and Smart Yarns got us a NASA Contract in 2024;” and last, but not least, a crowd favorite
• Alasdair Carmichael, NAPCOR, presenting “RPET into Fibers and Textile Recycling Opportunities.”

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Conference sponsors for the spring event included Diamond Sponsor Premier Fibers Inc.; Gold Sponsors Jomar Softcorp International Inc. and Oerlikon; Silver Sponsors Goulston Technologies and Pulcra Chemicals LLC; Bronze Sponsor Unifi Inc.; and Patrons Milliken & Company and PolySpinTex Inc.

“The Spring Synthetic Yarn and Fabric Association (SYFA) Conference could not have come at a more critical and opportune time,” said Meredith Boyd, SYFA president and executive vice president, Unifi Inc. “It served as a dynamic platform for industry leaders to come together, collaborate, and rise to the moment. There is a renewed energy across the industry — a collective drive to catalyze opportunities that meet the evolving global needs of brands and retailers. This region’s extraordinary capabilities in synthetic materials, combined with a spirit of innovation, are helping shape the future of our sector. It is an honor to serve the SYFA membership and to help convene key thought leaders and experts at our biannual conferences. The knowledge shared and the connections made during these events continue to be of tremendous value to all who participate.”

Mark your calendars for the SYFA Fall 2025 conference, which will be held at the Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel November 6-7, 2025.

2025 Quarterly Issue II