Zara Collaborates With Renewcell as Fashion’s Recycling Drive Keeps Turning

By Joshua Kirby

Swedish supplier Renewcell AB is set to provide recycled material for a new collection at Zara, as apparel brands continue to look for ways to address the industry’s waste problem.
Zara, part of Spanish fashion giant Industria de Diseno Textil SA, will create a capsule collection using the company’s Circulose material, which is made entirely from recycled textiles, Renewcell said Thursday.

“Fibers produced with Circulose helps brands to limit the use of virgin textile fibers, reducing the climate and environmental impact caused by raw material production and waste,” the company said.
The collection is available at Zara’s online stores from this week, and Renewcell aims to produce Circulose at a commercial scale in the near future at its plant in Sweden’s Sundsvall, it said.
The partnership follows a pilot project agreed in June last year between Inditex and Renewcell.
Inditex isn’t the first big apparel brand to partner with Renewcell. Last year, Swedish fashion major H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB upped its stake in the company to around 11%, and, like Zara, has entered collection collaborations using Renewcell’s fibers.
Zara’s deal meanwhile adds to other moves made by Inditex into the growing field of circular textiles. The group, which also owns Berskha, Massimo Dutti and Pull & Bear, earlier this year said it was entering a three-year partnership with Finnish biotech firm Infinited Fiber Company to buy fiber made from textile waste from 2024, at a price north of 100 million euros ($102.5 million.).
Write to Joshua Kirby at joshua.kirby@wsj.com; @joshualeokirby