Paris-based textile manufacturing company Reju is accelerating its efforts to tackle polyester waste by selecting Rochester, New York, as the site of its first industrial-scale regeneration facility in the United States. Founded in 2023, Reju aims to build a global circular system that converts post-consumer textile waste into regenerated polyester, reducing dependence on fossil-based raw materials.
The planned Regeneration Hub, to be located at Eastman Business Park, is designed to process the equivalent of around 300 million garments annually. The facility will transform discarded textiles into recycled BHET, which will then be repolymerized into Reju PET for use in new textile production, the company said.
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The U.S. site will complement Reju’s existing and planned European operations, including Regeneration Hub Zero, which is already operating in Frankfurt, and Regeneration Hub One, announced for Chemelot Industrial Park in the Netherlands. Together, the hubs are intended to support a scalable, cross-border circular supply chain for polyester textiles.
Reju’s regeneration process is based on proprietary technology developed in collaboration with Technip Energies and IBM Research. The company said the regenerated polyester has an estimated carbon footprint about 50% lower than virgin polyester and is engineered to be recycled repeatedly. Reju added that investing in Rochester will also create sustainable manufacturing jobs and strengthen near-shoring as the industry increasingly views post-consumer textile waste as a valuable resource rather than a liability.
