Zalando brings recycled fibres from pilot phase to its assortment

Zalando is using recycled fibres from the Eindhoven-based recycling company Re&Up in its private label range for the first time, bringing textile-to-textile recycling into commercial production.

The collection includes five T-shirts from Zalando's private labels Yourturn and Even&Odd and has been available in the online shop since August, Re&Up announced on Monday. The circular knit fabric consists of 80 percent organic cotton and 20 percent Next-Gen Cotton, a recycled fibre derived from textile waste. This marks the first use of the fibres in a Zalando private label.

Re&Up processes production waste and post-consumer textiles using its own process of sorting, decomposition and decolourisation. The resulting materials meet the technical, performance and traceability requirements necessary for commercial textile production, according to the company. The collection is intended as a template for other brands to use next-gen fibres beyond the pilot phase.

“Industrial circularity is no longer a promise for the future, but an operational reality,” said Özgür Atsan, chief commercial officer (CCO) of Re&Up. “Collaborations like this allow brands to move from pilot projects to repeatable, scalable production.”

Frederic Teufel, commercial director private labels at Zalando, points to the role of private labels as a testing ground. “Zalando's private labels bring together entry-level prices, quality and new materials for our customers. With Re&Up, we have developed a commercial T-shirt range with a 20 percent share of Next-Gen Cotton that meets our strict quality standards – exactly the test that every next-gen material must pass before we scale it.”

Re&Up is based in the Netherlands, produces in Turkey and is part of the Sanko Group. The capacity of the main Turkish plant was increased to 80,000 tonnes of textile waste per year in 2024, according to the group. Re&Up aims to achieve a global recycling capacity of one million tonnes by 2030.

This article was created with the help of AI.