Primark’s first long-term offtake agreement with a textile-to-textile recycler tackles one of circular fashion’s biggest barriers: guaranteed demand for industrial-scale recycling capacity.
Primark has signed a multi-year purchase agreement with US recycling company Circ to introduce textile-to-textile recycled polyester into its clothing at commercial scale from 2029. It is Primark’s first long-term offtake deal with a textile-to-textile recycler and is intended to reduce the retailer’s dependence on virgin polyester.
Neither company disclosed committed volumes or financial terms, making those figures important indicators to watch as the partnership progresses.
Polycotton becomes feedstock
Circ’s technology addresses one of textile recycling’s harder problems: polyester-cotton blends. Its hydrothermal process separates blended waste into cellulose and the polyester building blocks PTA and MEG, allowing both fractions to be returned to textile supply chains rather than sacrificing one material during recycling.
The Primark agreement will initially focus on Circ Polyester, produced from post-consumer and post-industrial textile waste sourced globally, including European waste streams.
€450 million plant provides scale
The material will be supported by Circ’s first commercial-scale polycotton recycling plant at Saint-Avold, France. The €450 million facility is designed to process up to 70,000 tonnes of textile waste annually, recover more than 90% of material inputs and create around 200 jobs. Circ currently expects the plant to become fully operational in 2029.
Circ is simultaneously building downstream conversion capacity through partnerships with fibre producers including Shenghong and BHF, helping convert recovered PET into filament and staple fibres at industrial scale.
The economics of circularity shift
The significance is the offtake model. Recycling plants require large capital commitments before brands can buy commercial volumes; recyclers therefore need credible future demand to finance capacity. Long-term purchasing commitments can reduce that investment risk.
For textile mills and apparel suppliers, this changes the sourcing equation. As mass-market retailers move from pilot collections to contracted recycled-fibre volumes, suppliers will increasingly need traceable textile waste, segregated feedstocks, recycled-fibre processing capability and chain-of-custody data.
For Pakistan, that creates an opportunity beyond garment manufacturing: developing organised post-industrial textile-waste collection and fibre-to-fibre supply chains could turn cutting waste and spinning waste into higher-value circular feedstock rather than low-value disposal streams.
