Recycled Polyester: Market Data & Facts
Yes - but mostly from plastic bottles, not clothes. Recycled polyester made up about 12.5% of global polyester production in 2023 (roughly 8.9 million tonnes), and around 99% of it is recycled from PET drink bottles rather than old textiles - so it diverts bottle waste but does not yet close the loop on textile waste.
Last updated June 2026 · Free to read, no login · Sourced to Textile Exchange
Recycled polyester in global production
| Metric | Value | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recycled polyester share of global polyester fibre | ≈ 12.5% | 2023 | Textile Exchange |
| Change vs previous year | Down from 13.6% (2022) | 2023 | Textile Exchange |
| Recycled polyester volume | ≈ 8.9 million tonnes | 2023 | Textile Exchange |
| Feedstock from post-consumer PET bottles | ≈ 99% (≈ 98% on 2024 data) | 2023–2024 | Textile Exchange |
| Feedstock from textile-to-textile recycling | ≈ 1–2% | 2023–2024 | Textile Exchange |
Figures are annual and are updated when Textile Exchange publishes its next Materials Market Report. The recycled-content share can fall even as recycled volume rises, because total polyester production keeps growing.
How recycled polyester is made
Most recycled polyester is produced by mechanical recycling: post-consumer PET bottles are collected, sorted, cleaned, and shredded into flakes, which are melted and extruded into new polyester fibre. It is energy-efficient and accounts for the bulk of today's rPET, but repeated melting can shorten the polymer chains, so recycled flake is often blended with virgin material to hold fibre strength.
Chemical recycling instead breaks PET back down to its building-block monomers, which are purified and re-polymerised into polyester equivalent to virgin material. It can handle mixed or coloured waste - including, in principle, polyester textiles - but it is more energy- and capital-intensive and remains a small share of production today.
Recycled vs virgin polyester
How rPET and conventional (virgin) polyester compare on feedstock and circularity:
| Attribute | Recycled polyester (rPET) | Virgin polyester |
|---|---|---|
| Feedstock | Post-consumer PET bottles (~99%) | Newly extracted fossil resources (oil / gas) |
| Diverts existing waste | Yes - keeps PET bottles out of landfill / incineration | No |
| Closes the textile loop | Mostly no - ~99% is bottle-based, not garment-to-garment | No |
| Competes with | Bottle-to-bottle recycling for the same PET feedstock | — |
| Fibre performance | Comparable; mechanical rPET often blended with virgin for strength | Baseline |
Frequently asked questions
Methodology & sources
All figures on this page are drawn from Textile Exchange's Materials Market Report (2024 edition reporting 2023 data; 2025 edition reporting 2024 data). Share and volume figures reflect global polyester fibre production. Feedstock-source percentages describe where recycled-polyester input material comes from. We do not publish unverified lifecycle or carbon-savings figures.
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