Lenzing is pioneering innovative business models focused on circularity, encompassing all aspects from chemical textile recycling, such as their collaboration with Södra, to integrating various recycling technologies.

Lenzing collaborates with Södra on a recycling project, named “Textile Recycling in Europe at Scale”, funded by the EU programme LIFE. The project aims to accelerate technological development of textile recycling and expand capacity to generate pulp from post-consumer waste. The project involves constructing and managing a facility for joint process development and extending the OnceMore® recycling process. This project started in 2023 and will continue until 2028.

In 2024, for instance, Recyc Leather and Lenzing combined recycled leather fibres with TENCEL™ Lyocell fibres to develop a next-generation material for footwear, which was utilized by the Danish contemporary brand GANNI. As another example, Lenzing and an innovative network of partners have developed a concept for recycling geotextiles made from Lenzing nonwoven fibres. After the geotextiles successfully protected a glacier field from melting in summer, instead of being disposed they were collected and recycled into a fashionable ‘Glacier Jacket’ garment.

Measurable Target: To innovate a new circular business model by closing the loops for post-consumer materials and partner with 15 key supply chain companies by 2025

Progress reported in July 2026:  The target of partnering with 15 key supply chain companies by 2025 has been achieved, via three approaches: collaborating with innovators on diverse waste streams, integrating mechanical, chemical, and blending with virgin materials, and running smaller-scale collection programs with Lenzing’s downstream value chain partners to generate insight for future scale-ups. A pilot program collected and sorted textile waste via a social enterprise organization (SEO) and recycled it into new fibers. The collaboration with Recyc Leather combined recycled leather fibers with TENCEL(TM) Lyocell fibers for footwear, adopted by a leading Danish contemporary brand. Separately, the long-term Sodra partnership (the EU-co-funded LIFE TREATS project, supported by EUR 10 million in EU LIFE program funding) targets recycling 50,000 tons of textile waste per year at Sodra's Morrum site by 2029, advancing the OnceMore®  recycling process.