RECYCLED POLYESTER ROUND TABLE

The 2019 Recycled Polyester (rPET) Round Table Summit took place in Vancouver on October 15 during Textile Exchange’s 2019 Textile Sustainability Conference and was our biggest yet, with almost 200 participants in attendance. The afternoon was packed with unique insights from industry experts into the most topical issues facing the sector right now. Attendees dug deeper and put speakers to the test by asking some very thought-provoking questions.

Thank you to ESTS Global for being a Contributor level sponsor of the 2019 rPET Round Table.

Thanks to the 2019 conference sponsors supporting this Round Table:

Topics covered included:

• A call to action put forward by Samsonite to “change your goal”,
• Microfibre release update from The Microfibre Consortium,
• Technology developments including examples from JEPLAN, Eastman, and Tyton BioSciences,
• GRS update presented by Textile Exchange,
• UNFCCC & ACP updates presented by Fabrikology,

• rPET Round Table Government Working Group update presented by group co-lead Traci Kinden,
• Legislation updates and examples presented by EURATEX and National Stewardship Action Council.

More than 100 stakeholders with different expertise and backgrounds including suppliers, brands and researchers participated in the Recycled Polyester Round Table Summit at Textile Exchange’s Textile Sustainability Conference in Milan on October 22, 2018, which was kindly sponsored by NSF. The meeting was hosted by Fabrikology’s Karla Magruder, previous Chair of Textile Exchange’s rPET Round Table (since succeeded by Fabrikology’s Elayne Masterson), with support from Sevilla Granger of Textile Exchange.

Susan Mair and Matt Tudball of ICIS presented some of the latest figures:

• 70 million tons global PET capacity
• 66% goes to fiber – 57 million tons
• By 2030 20% will be rPET
• China has 69% of PET capacity
• China ban – increased virgin and move to other Asian countries

Katy Stevens, Sustainability Project Manager at the European Outdoor Group, showcased the Outdoor Microfiber Consortium.

• An industry response to actively understand the problem of microfibre shedding and develop industry based solutions.
• This collaborative, brand driven approach encourages more in depth research projects, and facilitates greater levels of understanding and solution building than would be achievable alone.

Look out for the report out of project results at ISPO.

Legislation

• Clear bottles
• Collection
• rPET mandatory % product content
• Preferential tariffs

Quality

• Standardize chip quality
• GRS use as baseline

Brands & Retailers

• Economics
• Support new technologies
• Match performance to products
• Cross industry collaborations

Consumer Awareness

• Campaigns to support multi-sector use
• Storytelling
• Youth education

Textile Exchange wants to thank again our 2018 rPET Round Table sponsor NSF, as well as all participants.
We very much look forward to continuing these discussions.