Workwear manufacturer Alsico has begun its new initiative to recycle polyester and polyblend garments once they are no longer of use.
It has announced that it has delivered the first shipment of 2,000 kilograms of end-of-life garments to a pioneering facility set up by recycling technology specialist Sixone.
From now on, end-of-life garments collected through Alsico’s Arx garment collector will be systematically returned and transformed into high-quality polyester chips, providing a continuous source of material for the textile industry.
Vincent Siau, head of the company’s Alsico Academy initiative, said: “This is not a pilot or a one-off shipment. It marks the start of a permanent process where end-of-life garments will continually return as raw materials for future workwear.
“What once marked the end of a garment’s life is now the start of something new.”
The company is now focusing on producing and testing fabrics, as part of its 3CL project, made with polyester chips from its own garments.
Once these tests confirm that the new fabrics meet the brand’s high standards for durability, comfort and performance, they will be ready to produce more high-quality workwear.
The first shipment followed successful recyclability assessment tests with Sixone earlier this year. It was initiated to counter the millions of tons of textile waste already moving around the world every year, often to places where it ends up burned, buried or downcycled.
The workwear manufacturer’s ambition is to create a fully integrated, circular supply chain where Alsico garments are collected, recycled and reborn as new Alsico products, with every stage validated and improved through collaboration with its partners.
Alsico is a global manufacturer of high-performance protective workwear with bases across Europe, including Preston in Lancashire, as well as the USA and Thailand.
