Fashion for Good has launched Stretching Circularity in Amsterdam, targeting one of fashion’s most stubborn recycling challenges: elastane. The brief is clear — test lower-impact alternatives at pilot scale, prove they perform, and give brands the confidence to use them.
Elastane sits in roughly 80% of our wardrobes. It’s typically blended at 1–5% in cotton or wool, and up to 20% in polyester or polyamide, delivering the stretch and comfort most of us now expect as standard. The downside?
It’s fossil-based and carbon-intensive. Even in small amounts, it can contaminate recycling streams, making fibre-to-fibre recycling of materials like cotton and polyester far more complicated.
The result is straightforward: most stretch garments can’t be properly recycled and end up downcycled or in a landfill.
Stretching Circularity tackles the issue from two angles. The first tests next-generation elastane made from alternative inputs, including bio-based sources, through real-world demonstrator garments — a technical T-shirt with 10% elastane and a non-technical version with 2%.
The second focuses on regenerated elastane produced through emerging recycling technologies. Both are being assessed at pilot scale to generate hard data on performance, environmental impact, cost and scalability. In short, can these options match conventional elastane where it counts?
The project brings together players from across the supply chain. Partners include Levi Strauss & Co. (Beyond Yoga), On, Paradise Textiles, Positive Materials and Reformation, with Ralph Lauren Corporation serving as advisor. Materiom and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation are supporting due diligence and data-sharing to help de-risk adoption for the wider industry.
According to Managing Director Katrin Ley, lower-impact elastane solutions are already on the table — what’s been missing is the evidence to scale them confidently.
Carrie Freiman Parry of Reformation describes elastane as one of fashion’s most overlooked blockers to circularity: it’s everywhere, yet difficult to recover at scale. Stretching Circularity is about closing that gap and proving that stretch doesn’t have to come at the expense of circularity.
