The stretch-fibre producer is pursuing two routes to lower-impact elastane: replacing fossil feedstock with renewable chemistry today and developing textile-to-textile recycling for the longer term.
The LYCRA Company will showcase commercially produced Renewable LYCRA fibre and its emerging spandex-recycling technology at the Textile Exchange Conference 2026 in Vancouver on October 12–16, highlighting how one of apparel’s hardest-to-replace fibre components is beginning to decarbonise.
70% of fibre content becomes renewable
Renewable LYCRA uses QIRA bio-derived 1,4-butanediol, produced from US-grown dent corn, to replace a substantial share of fossil-derived inputs traditionally used in spandex manufacture.
The resulting fibre contains 70% plant-based content while retaining equivalent stretch and recovery characteristics. A 2026 third-party-reviewed comparative life-cycle assessment by Ramboll indicates a carbon-footprint reduction of up to 45% versus comparable LYCRA produced using fossil-derived PTMEG.
QIRA production began at commercial scale in Eddyville, Iowa, in July 2025, following completion of a $300 million facility backed by Cargill and HELM’s Qore joint venture. The plant was designed for roughly 65,000 tonnes of annual capacity.
Recycling tackles the elastane problem
The harder challenge is circularity. Stretch fabrics typically combine small quantities of elastane with cotton, polyester or nylon, complicating fibre-to-fibre recycling.
LYCRA says it has worked with recyclers to separate spandex from companion fibres in pre-consumer textile waste, recover the material and spin it into new spandex. The technology has reached pilot scale, but commercial infrastructure for recycled-content LYCRA has not yet been established.
That differs from existing LYCRA EcoMade, which contains 20% pre-consumer recycled material recovered from LYCRA’s own manufacturing waste.
Competitiveness takeaway
For denim, knitwear, hosiery and activewear manufacturers, lower-carbon elastane creates an opportunity to reduce product footprints without fundamentally redesigning stretch fabrics.
More strategically, mills should prepare for recycling technologies that can handle cotton-elastane and polyester-elastane blends. Fibre composition, production-waste segregation and traceability will become increasingly important as buyers move from recycled polyester and cotton toward whole-garment circularity.
The emerging competitive advantage will be the ability to combine renewable or recycled stretch fibres, verified carbon data and recycling-compatible fabric design in one commercially scalable product.
