Editor’s note: Learn more about textile recycling and many other topics at the upcoming Textile Recovery Summit, part of the 2025 Plastics Recycling Conference on March 24-26 in National Harbor, Maryland.
Global clothing e-commerce retailer Shein has developed a chemical recycling process alongside a Chinese research university and is planning to start up a facility in June, producing 6.6 million pounds per year of chemically recycled polyester for use in its apparel.
Shein, a Singapore-headquartered apparel retailer associated with the fast fashion market, works with 5,800 contract manufacturers globally and sells its clothing into more than 150 countries.
The company on Jan. 22 announced it has developed a process through which input polyester is “chemically broken down, refined and reconstituted at the polymer level.” Shein added that the process can handle a “wider range of materials” than the current polyester recycling processes used in materials Shein sources. The chemical recycling process can use both post-consumer and post-industrial polyester and both end-of-life textiles and other sources like PET bottles.
“This offers greater flexibility in sourcing for feedstock, and as a result, improved cost efficiency compared to the recycled polyester options currently used in Shein’s products,” the company wrote.
The project is part of what Shein described in its 2023 sustainability report as a “multi-year research partnership with Donghua University, a university specializing in engineering and material sciences, to study how to achieve commercially scalable production of recycled polyester fibers through mechanical and chemical recycling.”
It comes against a backdrop of the company seeking to hit an annual figure of 31% recycled content for the polyester used in its Shein-branded products by 2030. It has a ways to go to hit that goal, which it first announced in 2022: As of 2023, recycled polyester made up 7.9% of overall polyester use and 6.0% of the company’s total fiber used in Shein-branded products, according to its annual sustainability report.
Polyester makes up more than 75% of the company’s fiber feedstock, with the remainder consisting of cotton, viscose, spandex, polyamide and other materials.
Shein plans to start up a facility in June to use its newly developed process to produce 6.6 million pounds of chemically recycled polyester per year, with assistance from a group of selected fiber manufacturers. A spokesperson told Plastics Recycling Update the company has not yet released additional information about the facility, including its location.
The company’s interest in recycled material use and environmental initiatives as a whole comes alongside increasing scrutiny on the environmental impact of fast fashion. In recent years, institutions including the U.N. Environment Programme and Princeton University have probed the negative environmental effects of fast fashion practices and how the industry can shift to reduce its impact.
Shein acknowledged in its latest sustainability report that it is “early in this journey” and has “much to improve.” The company noted that “our mission is to make the beauty of fashion accessible for all. However, we recognize that producing affordable apparel and delivering it quickly to our customers all over the world comes with significant challenges that we, along with the rest of the industry, must address.”
