Textile Exchange says polyester climate impacts hinge on energy use

Textile Exchange put electricity at the center of polyester’s climate story when it released a new life-cycle assessment on June 11, 2026. The study, its second in a seven-part LCA series, used 2022 to 2024 production data from five PET producers across Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia and China to examine virgin polyester, thermomechanical recycling and chemical recycling.

The report is built as a cradle-to-gate, non-comparative attributional assessment, with review under ISO 14044:2006 by an independent expert panel and guidance from a Technical Advisory Group. That structure matters because the study is not trying to crown one fiber as the universal winner. It is mapping how polyester actually behaves in production, where the chemistry begins, where the power is consumed and where the supply chain gets its climate burden.

The most eye-catching detail is geographic. Textile Exchange says the assessment includes the first known publicly available data on virgin PET production from Southeast Asia, a region it says makes more than half of the world’s virgin PET. That fills a blind spot in a market that has spent years talking about recycled content without enough scrutiny of where the original resin is made, how the plant is powered and what upstream inputs are baked into the material before it reaches a cutting table.

The study’s own results point readers away from the simple recycled-polyester-is-solved narrative. Electricity consumption emerges as a major driver of polyester impacts, and the assessment tracks climate change, acidification, ecotoxicity, photochemical ozone formation and human toxicity. Textile Exchange also built in an LCA+ social assessment, a reminder that a lower-impact recycling system still has to protect livelihoods across the value chain, not just improve an emissions line on paper.

Beth Jensen said the study marks a significant update to existing polyester LCA data and gives decision-makers a stronger foundation for informed choices. Adam Gardiner said the numbers offer brands and recyclers a more credible picture of textile-to-textile recycling systems and where their impact reductions can come from.

Textile Exchange launched its priority LCA studies in 2022 and now says the program covers cotton, polyester, cashmere, nylon, leather hide, Responsible Wool Standard wool and Responsible Mohair Standard mohair. Cotton was published in March 2026, and the 2025 Recycled Polyester Challenge ended at the close of 2025, with final reporting in the 2026 cycle. The message is clear: fiber swapping is only the beginning, while the real work lies in cleaner energy, smarter sourcing, longer-lasting clothes and recycling systems that can actually carry the load.