Chemically Recycled Textile-to-Textile PET Chip

Filament-grade PET chip repolymerised from polyester textile waste, GRS certified

Chemically recycled textile-to-textile (T2T) PET chip starts as polyester textile waste: garments, offcuts and mill scrap. Instead of being melted and pelletised, the polyester is broken back down, by glycolysis to BHET or by methanolysis to DMT, cleaned of dyes and additives, and repolymerised into new chip. Because the polymer is rebuilt, the intrinsic viscosity (IV) is set at the polymerisation step. Filament spinners work to an IV window of about 0.62–0.68; textile filament needs IV above about 0.60, and staple fibre and soft-hand uses sit lower at 0.58–0.62.

Mechanical textile pellet is a different product. It is melted and filtered textile waste, and it typically comes out at IV 0.50–0.58, below filament grade. To reach 0.62–0.68 it needs solid-state polycondensation (SSP), or blending with bottle-grade chip. Some spinners accept only chemical T2T chip for their textile-to-textile lines, so the recycling route is part of the specification, not only the IV.

In 2026 only a few plants sell textile-derived chemically recycled chip in volume, in Turkey, China and India. The European and North American projects announced for this chip are scheduled to start in 2027–28. No supplier publishes a price for chemical T2T chip. Filament spinners in Switzerland and northern Italy are among the buyers of GRS textile-derived chip. The buyer's documents are a technical data sheet with IV, carboxyl end groups, moisture and colour (L*, b*), a GRS transaction certificate covering every step from scrap to chip, and a trial lot for spinning. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers recycled PET chip between recyclers and spinners, FCA, FOB or CIF. Send the IV window, colour, monthly tonnage, certification and delivery point.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.