Polycotton has been circularity’s brick wall. H&M, Circ, and Lenzing might have found an exit.

Starting this fall, H&M Group plans to release a women’s V-neck fleece sweatshirt made with Circ-derived recycled fibers from polycotton waste, followed by men’s denim in spring 2026 that integrates TENCEL | Circ with REFIBRA technology.

It blends dominate mass fashion because they combine affordability, durability, and comfort. They are also famously hard to recycle. Traditional routes either downcycle the material or destroy one component during separation, which stalls true textile-to-textile loops. Circ’s work targets polyester-cotton knots that have kept “circular” stuck as pilots. Circ’s core claim is that it can separate both fiber streams for reuse rather than sacrificing one to save the other.

The textile-to-textile recycler uses a hydrothermal process to pull polyester and cellulose apart from polycotton blends. Controlled heat, pressure, and chemistry tuned to release polyester from the cotton-derived cellulose without shredding either into useless mush. The output is two usable inputs: a a polyester stream and a cellulosic stream that can be regenerated into new fibers. Because the process aims to deliver spinnable inputs compatible with existing mill equipment, it is positioned to slide into current lines with minimal disruption, which is the difference between a lab demo and a production plan.

A concrete proof point beyond H&M: PYRATEX reports converting Circ-recovered cellulose into lyocell for commercial fabrics, showing that the cellulosic output can feed known platforms rather than inventing a completely new fiber class. That versatility lowers adoption risk for mills and brands.

H&M brings scale and merchandising weight while Circ supplies the separated streams. Lenzing integrates the recovered cellulose with its established technologies, notably TENCEL with REFIBRA, which already blends recycled pulp into man-made cellulosics at industrial scale. When the inputs are compatible with Lenzing’s platforms and downstream mills, the pathway for repeatable orders improves and you are no longer relying on one-off capsules.

The near-term line plan is modest on purpose: a fleece in fall 2025, then denim in spring 2026. Category expansion depends on quality, cost, throughput, and verified data that satisfy both internal sourcing gates and external scrutiny. If those signals are positive, the coalition has the relationships to scale additional styles without rebuilding the world’s supply chain from scratch.

Scale Signals and Realistic Timelines

Multiple analyses (McKinsey, GFA, EMF) frame “scale” as cumulative: fiber-to-fiber recycling and next-gen materials expand through offtakes, data readiness, and cross-value-chain pilots. 

In practice, scale starts with a handful of sellable styles that pass four checks:

• Meet brand quality standards across wear, wash, and handfeel;

• Land in cost windows that can live in mainstream price architecture; Materials are ~30% of fashion COGS, and scaling next-gen inputs requires bending the cost curve via demand signals and offtake/transition financing.

• Operational compatibility:  Pilots that move beyond the lab are the ones that run on existing mills, laundries, and cut-and-sew flows; industry analyses highlight that scale is constrained by technical and operational hurdles, making compatibility a prerequisite.

• Carry verified data from feedstock to finished garment. EU Digital Product Passports and adjacent traceability rules are pushing brands to capture ~100+ data points per product and to be DPP-ready ahead of formal standardization.

That 12 to 18-month window is the industry’s chance to prep bill of materials, testing, partner briefs, and compliance documentation rather than waiting for an “available now” announcement that no one is operationally ready to use.

H&M’s Polycotton Test: Costs, QA, and Traceability Realities

Blend ratios, finishes, and contaminants vary, which can swing separation efficiency and the quality of both output streams. Until controlled sourcing, pre-sort, and composition verification tighten up at scale, batch-to-batch variance will remain a friction point for mills trying to keep specs stable.

Costs will also test conviction. Early runs rarely land in baseline price windows, and the real threshold is whether fleece and denim can clear H&M’s commercial architecture at volume, not just in a PR-friendly capsule. That demands shared QA and process control across the chain: the recycler, fiber producer, mills, laundries, and cut-and-sew need common test plans, not brand-by-brand improvisation, or line compatibility will slip to the weakest link.

Then comes trust. Fast fashion has a credibility gap, so it is essential that their claims be backed by public proof like third-party lab data and audits, verified chain-of-custody, and product-level evidence that consumers and peers can question. The more partners disclose their inputs, losses, yields, chemistry, and performance, the more likely this shift holds as a durable material pathway rather than a short-term marketing stunt.

What Brands Should Look For

Design for recycling. Avoid components that block future separation: laminated linings, undisclosed elastane, blended interlinings, and complicated trims. Write spec sheets that call out blend ratios and finishes so a recycler knows what is actually in the garment and how to treat it.

Be data-ready. Capture fiber IDs, chemical finishes, and dye systems. Your traceability system should output data that can flow into recycler acceptance criteria and consumer-facing disclosures.

Run line trials with the right mills. If you already produce with man-made cellulosics, you likely have partners who know TENCEL and REFIBRA-type recipes. Use them. Set up A/B production tests to compare handfeel, shade, and shrinkage against current standards.

Map your 2025–26 volumes. Set realistic order bands for ranges for fleece and denim categories that could switch once validation gates clear. Share those signals early so suppliers can plan capacity and batching.

Build for Digital Product Passports. The EU moves towards DPP requirements for textiles. Start by structuring product evidence today, then you are not gathering documentation under pressure later.

What Suppliers Should Invision

Validate materials. Request pilot lots of regenerated inputs to test dye uptake, abrasion, pilling, shade reproducibility, and dimensional stability. Record comparisons against your control recipes.

Understand MOQ and batching. Recycled feedstocks often arrive in batches with different constraints than virgin. Work with brands on consolidated color ways or material groupings that clear machine and dye-kettle minimums without driving up the unit cost.

Tune quality and cost windows. Set target ranges for yield, seconds rate, and price per meter for early runs. Share honest variance data so the coalition can solve, not spin.

Tighten documentation. Prepare declarations for input content, processing conditions, and waste streams. This will shorten audits and make your fabrics easier to onboard into DPP-ready brand systems.

Why This Feels Different

The plan rides existing industrial platforms instead of asking suppliers to rip and replace. If the 2025 fleece and 2026 denim clear quality and cost gates, the path to repeatable orders looks plausible, which is exactly what circularity has lacked for polycotton.

World Collective exists to connect brands and suppliers with verified data and real products so responsible sourcing becomes routine. If you are planning 2025–26 assortments, we can help you: identify mills ready for regenerated inputs, structure the product data you will need for DPPs, and map realistic MOQ strategies that respect time, money, and the planet.

Brief your 2025–26 line plan with confidence. Plan your next collection with fabrics that’ll actually make a difference by exploring our monomaterials article.