Inditex to team up with Lenzing for textiles recycling in Spain and beyond

Inditex, a Spanish multinational clothing company to team up with Lenzing to commit to the circular economy model in all phases of its production. It will be focusing on creating premium textile raw materials from its fabric scraps, initially involving about 500 tons of textile waste.

The collaboration is meant to kick-start a clothing collection campaign as well as a reuse and recycling programme for discarded garments. The aim is to raise this to around 3 000 tons within a few years, said Inditex’s chairman and chief executive Pablo Isla.

The recycling initiative will provide Lenzing with enough fabric to produce about 48 million garments. Zara, Inditex’s flagship store, produces an estimated 450 million items of clothing annually. Zara will pilot a free clothing collection scheme for online deliveries in Madrid this September. As a first step, the company plans to install up to clothing collection bins Zara stores and hotspots throughout the city with help of local charity Cáritas.

Isla announcing the company’s 2016-2020 Environmental Strategy Plan said that he ultimately hopes to roll out this project on a national scale. This will see Inditex install up to 2000 collection bins across Spain. Inditex has announced donating EUR 3.5 million (US$3.9 million) over two years to modernize Cáritas’ existing garment sorting and treatment plants.