Puma is set to make football shirts for the 2024 Euros and Copa America tournaments out of garments and factory waste.
As part of its Re:Fibre programme, the sportswear brand is aiming to challenge of textile waste via a long-term solution for recycling.
It also looks to diversify the fashion industry’s main source of recycled polyester in garments from being less reliant on clear plastic bottles.
Puma’s process uses any polyester material – from factory offcuts, faulty goods to pre-loved clothes which allows new garments to be recycled from any colour textile to any colour desired.
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“Our wish is to have 100% of product polyester coming from textile waste,” said Puma chief sourcing officer Anne-Laure Descours.
“Textile waste build-up in landfills is an environmental risk,” Descours added.
“Rethinking the way we produce and moving towards a more circular business model is one of the main priorities of our sustainability strategy.”
The Re:Fibre process includes:
- Collecting and sorting textile waste and other materials
- Shredding and mixing materials down to the minimum
- Melting down the shredded polyester and ridding them of previous dyes through a chemical recycling process
- he melting allows the newly produced polymers to become ready to be spun and sewn into shape to create good as new Re:Fibre fabric which can be recycled again and again.
