REFIBRA™ Marks 5-Year Anniversary on the Market
Five years ago this week, Lenzing officially launched our TENCEL™ lyocell with REFIBRA™ technology fibers. REFIBRA™ became the FIRST commercially available cellulosic fiber with recycled content, changing the game for circularity.
Providing a reuse solution to textile waste, REFIBRA™ uses cotton fabric scraps as a feedstock for the lyocell production process, simultaneously recycling cloth and reducing the amount of wood pulp needed to create lyocell. “For Lenzing, developing circular business models in the fashion industry ensures the decoupling of business growth from pressure on ecological resource consumption,” explained Lenzing Group’s Robert van de Kerkhof, CCO, at the time of REFIBRA™’s launch. “It reduces the need to extract additional virgin resources from nature, and reduces the net impact on ecological resources.”
Because REFIBRA™ uses chemical rather than mechanical recycling, the fibers produced are identical in quality and properties to lyocell made entirely of wood. In denim, REFIBRA™ can be used as a blending partner to recycled cotton to enhance a jean’s circular story and provide added textile strength.
Over the last half decade, we’ve continued to develop REFIBRA™. The portion of recycled cotton content in the fibers has expanded, and today REFIBRA™ can be made with up to 30 percent textile waste.
“Collaborating with our mill and brand partners over the past five years to bring scalable circular solutions to commercial reality brings the next generation to textiles,” states Tricia Carey, director of global business development. “I distinctly remember our launch in Paris and repeatedly explaining the process and showing the inputs to output. There were many skeptics who thought it would never work, but here are we today and gaining even more momentum with market demand. Our goal is to reach 50% post-consumer cotton scraps by 2025.”
REFIBRA™ is just part of Lenzing’s commitment to leading circular solutions for the fashion industry. Our fibers are made using renewable wood, with a focus on resource efficiency. The lyocell production process in particular uses a closed-loop system that recovers and reuses more than 99 percent of the solvent used.
Because they’re made of wood, cellulosic fibers are also biodegradable. If disposed of, they will break down in soil or water rather than remaining in landfills or oceans.
Since its debut in 2017, REFIBRA™ has grown thanks in large part to the support of mill and brand partners, including Levis, Kings of Indigo, Closed and Boyish.
For more on REFIBRA™, read the Carved in Blue stories below.
Boyish Gets an Inside Look at REFIBRA™
Closed Denim Brings TENCEL™ x REFIBRA™ Denim to Its Collection
Levi’s and Outerknown Embrace TENCEL™ x REFIBRA™ Lyocell for New Collection
Cone Denim Advances Denim Sustainability with TENCEL™ x REFIBRA™ Lyocell Fibers
Triarchy’s Josephine Skriver Collab Models Sustainable Materials
Carbon-Zero TENCEL™ Gets a Circular Upgrade
Going Green with the Good Loop
Thank you to everyone who has been part of the REFIBRA™ journey so far. It’s just the beginning!