Fibre encyclopedia
Recycled polyester
Also called recycled polyester · poliester daur ulang · rPET · RPET
Polyester spun from polymer that has been through one life already, most often as a drinks bottle rather than as cloth.
Class
Synthetic
Comes from
From oil or gas
Where it comes from
Most recycled polyester on the market today comes from drinks bottles, because bottles are collected in a stream that is already clean and sorted by material. Recycled polyester made from used clothing needs sorting by fibre first, and that step is the constraint rather than the chemistry.
How it feels to wear
Air
Decided by the knit or weave, not by the fibre
Water
Water stays on the surface
Heat
Neither holds nor sheds heat
Stretch
A little stretch of its own
Wear
Holds up to hard rubbing
As a fibre it behaves as polyester behaves: it holds almost no water, dries quickly and takes heat damage before water damage. Mechanical recycling shortens the polymer chain a little, so recycled polyester is often spun with new polymer to hold a consistent yarn.
Care
- Wash cold.
- Skip the hot dryer.
- A wash bag holds back part of the fibre that comes loose.
Care is polyester care. Nothing about the previous life changes the wash.
End of life
Recycling route
Mechanical recycling
A bottle spun into cloth leaves the bottle-to-bottle stream and enters the textile stream, which has a different collection and a different route. Recycled polyester releases microfibres as polyester does, because it is polyester.
In a blend
A blend closes the mechanical route here exactly as it does for new polyester.
Skin notes
Mechanical
The same smooth filament surface as new polyester.
Chemical
Dye class and finish are the same question as for new polyester, and neither is declared.
If your skin reacts to a garment, a dermatologist and patch testing are what can answer it. A label cannot, and neither can this page.
What the label cannot tell you
The label gives a percentage. It does not say whether the polymer came from bottles or from cloth, and it does not say who checked the figure.
Sources
- Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 on textile fibre names and related labelling, Annex I. Checked 22 August 2026
- European Commission Joint Research Centre, techno-scientific assessment of the management options for used and waste textiles in the European Union, 2023
- Napper and Thompson, Marine Pollution Bulletin 112, 2016, on fibre release from domestic washing machines
Written from primary sources and in our own words. Where a figure could not be traced to a source anyone can open, it is not printed here.
Read the label you are holding
The scan surface reads one care label and names which questions it answers and which it leaves out. A passport says for one specific piece what a label cannot: the composition with its percentages, where the cloth came from, who worked on it, how to repair it and where it goes next.