French textile and plastic recycling startup Recyc’ELIT secures €3.2M: Know more

Chasse sur Rhône-based Recyc’ELIT, a French startup that recycles all types of complex textiles and plastics, announced that it has secured €3.2M in a fresh round of funding.

Demeter led the investment through the Metropolitan Industrial Seed Fund (FAIM) Lyon – Saint-Etienne and UI Investissement.

Banque des Territoires (Caisse des Dépôts Group), Crédit Agricole Création, and undisclosed business angels also participated in the funding round.

“Don’t throw textiles, Recyc’ELIT”

Recyc’ELIT’s founders Karim Medimagh and Raouf Medimagh, experts in research and industry services, are addressing textile and plastic issues using their innovative approach to industrial by-products.

Motivated by industry and government commitment to integrating recycled materials, they are working towards solutions.

Europe aims to integrate 10 million tonnes of recycled plastic by 2025, emphasising the urgency. “Otherwise, by 2050, there might be more fish than plastics in our oceans,” say the founders.

Recyc’Elit’s solution

Founded in 2019, Recyc’ELIT is a startup addressing the challenges of recycling polyester-based textiles. With its patented process, the startup can recycle diverse PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) waste, including coloured and multifibre materials, from various sources.

The company’s method selectively depolymerises PET fibres back to their original building blocks using minimal reagents and solvents without harming other fibres. 

In Europe, Recyc’ELIT claims to be a pioneer in adopting low-carbon and economically viable eco-depolymerisation chemical technology for PET recycling. The resulting monomers can be used to produce virgin PET of food-grade quality or other premium grades in a sustainable closed loop.

According to the startup, its focus lies in tackling challenging textile and plastic recycling, especially with problematic PET plastics that disrupt mechanical processes. 

Collaborating closely with recyclers, Recyc’ELIT optimises its method to handle these plastics, ensuring compatibility with sorting processes and enabling the production of high-quality recycled PET pellets. 

Recyc’ELIT says, “We transform unsorted waste into a product with high added value. We continue challenging our process with all sorts of complex, multifiber and composite textiles and plastics with encouraging results.”