The rapid rise of ultra-fast-fashion brands, which can move from design to sales in as little as one week, has intensified the problem of discarded clothing. According to a World Bank report, textile-related waste accounts for 12% of global municipal solid waste, while the fashion industry currently produces about 10% of the world's total carbon emissions.
Polyester, which accounts for approximately 60% of clothing worldwide, is a synthetic fiber derived from crude oil and is chemically equivalent to PET plastic. Because it is often dyed or blended with other fibers, there are few practical recycling options. Only about 1% of all textile waste is recycled, while landfilling or incineration causes serious environmental harm. As these issues become more prominent, the fashion industry is also facing growing pressure to implement ESG management. In Europe, policymakers are already moving to extend extended producer responsibility (EPR) requirements to the apparel industry, requiring producers to recycle a portion of the waste generated by the products they sell. Separate collection of textile waste is also scheduled to become mandatory from January 2025.
Although efforts to improve sustainability and circularity in the fashion industry are continuing, much of the sector still relies on a linear system of landfilling and incineration. Terracle, a chemical-recycling company, is working to create a virtuous ESG cycle in the fashion industry by applying depolymerization technology to synthetic-fiber clothing that has previously been difficult to recycle.
Terracle owns depolymerization technology that uses a catalyst system to convert PET into monomers. This is regarded as a next-generation recycling technology, and companies around the world are working toward commercialization. Terracle's process is designed to minimize environmental pollution and energy use. Unlike conventional depolymerization technologies that require high temperatures and pressure, its process can operate at atmospheric pressure and below 60°C, improving economic efficiency.
By using depolymerization to recover the original polyester feedstocks TPA (terephthalic acid) and EG (ethylene glycol), the company can recycle not only discarded clothing but also colored and composite waste plastics, marine waste, and other materials that have been difficult to process through mechanical recycling.
Terracle also supplies high-purity recycled materials comparable to petrochemical-grade TPA. Because TPA is used as a major raw material in packaging, fibers, films, engineering plastics, paints, adhesives, and tire cords, it has broader industrial applicability than conventional recycled PET chips.
Kibaek Kwon, CEO of Terracle, said, "We expect depolymerization technology to expand the range of recyclable materials to include polyester, polyurethane fibers, banners, and apparel. We also plan to develop recycling technologies for additional waste streams such as PU and nylon, expand into more industrial sectors, and continue partnerships that support circular resource use in the fashion industry."
Terracle became the first company in Korea to successfully produce high-purity recycled TPA (Cr-TPA) at ton scale. More recently, it was selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' Super Gap Startup 1000+ Project and is currently carrying out its assigned program.
