Worn Again Technologies Opens R&D Plant in England, With More to Come

LONDON — Worn Again Technologies, a polymer recycling company, has launched a research and development facility in Redcar, England. The plant is the first major step in the company’s long-term strategy to bring its technology to scale for the retail industry. “The purpose of the pilot is to continue generating data that will validate the process steps of separating and decontaminating PET polymer from textiles so that we can recapture raw materials in these textiles and get them back into circulation,” said Cyndi Rhoades, founder of Worn Again Technologies. Until now, the company has been in a pre-industrialization phase; it has taken eight years to go from laboratory to proof of concept to the industrial phase. In the meantime, they’ve caught the eye of some major fashion industry players and garnered support from the likes of H&M and Kering Group. In 2013, H&M Group invested in Worn Again Technologies while Kering has been contributing to the company’s research, and providing financial support. “This is a solution that all big brands and retailers require and need, but in terms of actual technological development, there is very little they can do because it is so far back in the supply chain,” said Rhoades. “So where we

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