At the National Circular Economy Conference in Nantes, which focused on industrial sovereignty, Carbios, a French company, announced the successful production of t-shirts made from recycled polyester derived from complex textile waste. This project was initiated in collaboration with well-known brands such as Patagonia, PUMA, and Salomon. Several European industrialists tested the recycled material across different stages of textile production, including polyester production, spinning, knitting, dyeing, and manufacturing. The challenge comes from the way textiles are typically made, often combining polyester with other fibers, dyes, spandex, or treatments. This makes it difficult to recover pure polyester and transform it into a material of comparable quality. Currently, most recycled polyester used by brands comes from PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles rather than from used clothing. This is due to a lack of structured industry systems for recovering materials directly from garments. To address this, Carbios is using an enzymatic process designed to handle complex textile waste. For the demonstration, waste was broken down into molecular components and repolymerized in Portugal to produce over a ton of textile-quality recycled PET. The material was then spun in Spain, knitted, dyed, and manufactured in France using conventional industrial equipment. According to Carbios, the resulting fibers have mechanical performance, dyeing ability, and color fastness similar to virgin polyester. This is crucial for brands, as recycled materials must meet technical standards and be compatible with existing production equipment without major changes. Recycling is easier when waste is uniform, but fiber mixtures and textiles with multiple treatments remain more challenging to recover. Carbios presents enzymatic recycling as a complement to mechanical recycling, rather than a replacement. The two processes address different types of waste, with enzymatic recycling focusing on PET from complex waste flows that mechanical treatment finds more difficult. The announcement aligns with the conference's focus on improving industrial recycling capacity. The French government's Plastic Plan aims to boost the country's recycling performance, as only 26% of plastic packaging is currently recycled in France. The plan includes efforts to improve collection, sorting, eco-design, the use of recycled materials, and industrial capacities. Textile recycling presents additional challenges, as part of the supply chain remains underdeveloped. Collecting used clothing is not enough if they cannot be sorted by composition, prepared, and sent to facilities capable of effectively recovering the material. The demonstration by Carbios and its partners represents progress, showing that polyester from complex waste can be used by multiple European industrialists on standard production lines. However, organizing sufficient waste volumes, finding outlets for the produced material, and making necessary investments for deployment remain challenges. This aligns with the conference's theme, emphasizing that transforming waste into an industrial resource requires both recycling capabilities and the infrastructure to reintegrate it into production, a task that is only just beginning for textiles.