A collaboration to cross the industrialisation threshold
This collaboration will enable, for the first time, the industrial-scale recycling of nylon-rich mixed textiles. It brings together Michelin’s expertise as a recognised leader in material science for over 130 years, and Syntetica’s proprietary chemical recycling process.
The pilot installation will benefit from the industrial infrastructure, technical teams, and operational excellence made available by the Michelin Innovation Park, transforming a laboratory innovation into a robust and reproducible industrial solution.
Addressing the major challenge of textile recycling across multiple industries
The global textile industry faces a major environmental challenge: today, less than 1 % of textiles are recycled. The majority of technical garments contain mixed synthetic fibres, making recycling complex, or even impossible, using conventional methods.
Syntetica has developed a proprietary, low-temperature chemical process capable of recycling nylon-rich mixed textiles directly, without pre sorting, to produce Nylon 6 and Nylon 6,6 of high purity, compatible with textile, automotive, and industrial applications.
The pilot at the CMD targets the recycling of several tonnes of textile waste from the initial phase, with a progressive scale-up towards industrial volumes for the future demonstrator facility from 2027.
A collaboration in service of the circular economy
This collaboration rests on a shared conviction: industrial players have a key role to play in the transition towards a more sustainable world. It is set within a structuring European regulatory context, marked by the mandatory separate collection of textiles from 2025 and by growing requirements for recycled content from 2027.
The pilot installation at the Center for Sustainable Materials marks the first step in a broader ambition carried by Syntetica’s green chemistry platform, designed to extend to other polymers and open the way to a new generation of circular industrial solutions.
About Syntetica
Syntetica is a French deeptech startup specialising in the chemical recycling of plastics, starting with nylon-rich textiles. It has developed a patented low temperature depolymerisation process enabling direct recycling of mixed textiles, without pre sorting. Its solution produces high-quality recycled nylon compatible with the textile, automotive, and industrial sectors. Designed for industrial reality, the technology targets a competitive cost versus virgin nylon. Syntetica is making nylon truly circular at scale.
About the Center des Matériaux Durables
Operated and managed by Michelin, the Center for Sustainable Materials is designed to accelerate the scale-up of the startups it hosts in the fields of CleanTech and green energy. It provides a range of services to help them achieve their industrial demonstrator faster, more economically, and more safely — including world-class industrial and technical infrastructure, as well as the specific know-how of Michelin’s teams.