 | |
| Recover | |
| Company type | Privately held company |
| Industry | Textiles |
| Founded | 2020 |
| Headquarters | Banyeres de Mariola, Spain |
| Products | Recycled Cotton Fiber |
| Website | recoverfiber |
Recover Textile Systems, mainly known as Recover, is a materials science company and producer of mechanically recycled cotton fiber and recycled cotton fiber blends, created in 2020 with its headquarters in Banyeres de Mariola, Spain. [1]
Recover is a spin-off of Ferre Yarns (Hilaturas Ferre), a Spanish textile company based in Banyeres de Mariola, Spain. The Ferre family started its business in 1914 as a textile factory dedicated to the production of jute and other non-clothing textiles. After a period of raw material shortages due to the first and second world wars, in 1947 the company started recycling textile waste back into cotton yarns. [2]
In 2006, Ferre Yarns gave a name to its recycled product line: Recover. In the following years, the company started expanding its product lines by including cotton fiber blends to its portfolio, such as recycled cotton-recycled polyester (rPET) and recycled cotton-organic cotton. In 2014, Ferre Yarns launched its first Recover product lines with retailers such as H&M, Armani, Hugo Boss and Inditex. [3]
In December 2020, Ferre Yarns announced it sold its spin-off Recover to the American private equity fund STORY3 Capital. [4] Ferre Yarns would focus on spinning, while the fiber business would be taken over by the newly created Recover Textile Systems, S.L. The Ferre family announced it would maintain a minority stake in Recover as Alfredo Ferre was named chief executive officer.
In May 2021, Recover announced it opened a facility in Pakistan in partnership with Artistic Denim Mills (ADM). [5] In May 2022, Recover unveiled its new facility in Dhaka, Bangladesh to boost its manufacturing capabilities and directly service the country's textile sector. [6] Bangladesh is the world's second largest apparel exporter after China, and was deemed, therefore, an ideal location for expansion given the increasing demand for ‘sustainable’ materials. [7]
In June 2022, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s asset-management arm led a $100 million growth investment in the company. [8] The investment, the company said, put it on track to increase its production and add 15 manufacturing facilities in seven geographies, including Vietnam. [9]
The company's manufacturing process falls under mechanical textile-to-textile recycling, a process which recovers materials of pre-consumer, post-consumer and post-industrial origins to transform them into recycled yarns for new fabrics. [10] Textile recycling is a component of a circular economy, along with reusing, reducing and repairing.
Recover has a public Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study published in 2016, that was carried out by the University of Valencia, called “Environmental impact of Recover cotton in the Textile industry”. The study was later verified by AITEX and UNESCO. It analyzes the manufacturing process of a garment made from conventional cotton compared to one made from Recover recycled cotton. The use of recycled cotton eliminates several phases of the manufacturing process of conventional cotton, such as farming, ginning, and dyeing. This produces savings for the environment in terms of water, pollutants, CO₂ emissions, energy and land use. [11]
Recover complies to annual verification tests and certifications by third parties such as Organic Content Standard (OCS) and Global Recycle Standard (GRS). [12] The company is also a member of several industry initiatives such as Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), [13] Textile Exchange [14] and Global Fashion Agenda. [15]
In 2017, Ferre Yarns, S.A., received the innovative company award from la Fundación Textil Algodonera for its production of circular yarns. [16] In 2018, Ferre Yarns, S.A., received the Aitex Business Award in the Sustainability category for its Recover project. [17] In November 2021, Recover received the Ryan Young Climate+ Award in the Climate Leader category granted by Textile Exchange. [18] Shortly after, the company received a Drapers Award in the Disruptor category. [19]
In May 2022, Recover won the Green Product Award 2022 in the Fashion category. [20] In September 2022, Recover won the ITMF Sustainability & Innovation Award at the ITMF Annual Conference 2022 in Davos. [21]
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal wool.
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the only manufacturing method, and many other methods were later developed to form textile structures based on their intended use. Knitting and non-woven are other popular types of fabric manufacturing. In the contemporary world, textiles satisfy the material needs for versatile applications, from simple daily clothing to bulletproof jackets, spacesuits, and doctor's gowns.
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or other lubricants to withstand the stresses involved in sewing. Embroidery threads are yarns specifically designed for needlework. Yarn can be made of a number of natural or synthetic materials, and comes in a variety of colors and thicknesses. Although yarn may be dyed different colours, most yarns are solid coloured with a uniform hue.
Cashmere wool, usually simply known as cashmere, is a fiber obtained from cashmere goats, pashmina goats, and some other breeds of goat. It has been used to make yarn, textiles and clothing for hundreds of years. Cashmere is closely associated with the Kashmir shawl, the word "cashmere" deriving from an anglicization of Kashmir, when the Kashmir shawl reached Europe in the 19th century. Both the soft undercoat and the guard hairs may be used; the softer hair is reserved for textiles, while the coarse guard hair is used for brushes and other non-apparel purposes. Cashmere is a hygroscopic fiber, absorbing and releasing water from the air based on the surrounding environment. This helps regulate the body in both warm and cool temperatures.
Eastman Chemical Company is an American company primarily involved in the chemical industry. Once a subsidiary of Kodak, today it is an independent global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of advanced materials, chemicals and fibers for everyday purposes. Founded in 1920 and based in Kingsport, Tennessee, the company operates 36 manufacturing sites worldwide and employs approximately 14,000 people.
The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of textiles: yarn, cloth and clothing.
The Marzotto Group is an Italian textile manufacturer, based in Valdagno.
Fast fashion is the business model of replicating recent catwalk trends and high-fashion designs, mass-producing them at a low cost, and bringing them to retail quickly while demand is at its highest. The term fast fashion is also used generically to describe the products of this business model, particularly clothing and footwear. Retailers who employ the fast fashion strategy include Primark, H&M, Shein, and Zara, all of which have become large multinationals by driving high turnover of inexpensive seasonal and trendy clothing that appeals to fashion-conscious consumers.
Textile recycling is the process of recovering fiber, yarn, or fabric and reprocessing the material into new, useful products. Textile waste is split into pre-consumer and post-consumer waste and is sorted into five different categories derived from a pyramid model. Textiles can be either reused or mechanically/chemically recycled.
Sustainable fashion is a term describing efforts within the fashion industry to reduce its environmental impacts, protect workers producing garments and uphold animal welfare. Sustainability in fashion encompasses a wide range of factors, including cutting CO2 emissions, addressing overproduction, reducing pollution and waste, supporting biodiversity and ensuring that garment workers are paid a fair wage and have safe working conditions.
Jersey is a knit fabric used predominantly for clothing manufacture. It was originally made of wool, but is now made of wool, cotton and synthetic fibers.
Uster Technologies, in its industry often called USTER, is a Swiss manufacturer of analytical instruments and on-line monitoring systems for the textile industry, based in Uster, Switzerland. It emerged as a management buy-out form of the textile division Zellweger Uster of the Zellweger Luwa Group in 2003. From 2007 until 2012 the company was publicly traded and listed on the main segment of SIX Swiss Exchange. Since 2012 Uster Technologies is a subsidiary of Toyota Industries.
Desigual ; Catalan: Catalan:[dəziˈɣwal]); meaning "unequal, uneven") is a Spanish fashion label. The company was founded by Thomas Meyer in 1984, and is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. As of 2022, it had a presence in 109 countries, with different distribution channels and several partners.
Toyobo Co., Ltd. is one of Japan's top makers of fibers and textiles, including synthetic fibers and natural fibers, such as cotton and wool.
Zero-waste fashion refers to a fashion design strategy, that generates little or no textile waste during the production process, particularly focusing on the pattern making and cutting stages. It is a reaction to the high amount of discarded clothing items going into landfills around the world.
Cotton recycling is the process of converting cotton fabric into fibers that can be reused into other textile products.
The textile industry is Pakistan's largest manufacturing sector, employing nearly 25 million people. As the eighth largest exporter of textile commodities in Asia, the industry contributes 8.5% to the country's Gross domestic product.
MUD Jeans is a denim brand based in the Netherlands that specializes in sustainable denim products.
Bananatex is a natural cellulosic biodegradable "technical" canvas fabric made of Abacá banana plant fibres. The plants are grown in the Philippines as part of a sustainable forestry project in Catanduanes. Bananatex was developed and is distributed by the Swiss canvas goods company QWSTION and is used in the company's own products as well as in other companies' manufactured goods. Bananatex was developed to have better wear characteristics than cotton while being more sustainable. It is less durable than synthetics like Cordura, and can biodegrade. Bananatex is sold in a range of colours and is available with or without a natural beeswax waterproof coating.
In textile spinning, yarn realisation (YR), or yarn recovery, is an operational parameter of yarn manufacturing. It is the percentage conversion of raw material to finished yarn. The rest of the waste fibers with less value are compared to the weight of the produced yarn from a given weight of raw material. The quantity of waste removed during the various phases of yarn spinning, such as blow-room, carding, and combing, is often used to determine yarn realisation. Yarn realisation ranges between 85% and 90% in carded cotton yarns and between 67% and 75% in combed cotton yarns.