LYCRA Scales Plant-Based Spandex, Targets Textile Recycling
The LYCRA Company has begun commercial-scale production of spandex fiber containing 70% plant-based material, replacing a substantial portion of petroleum-derived inputs as the apparel industry seeks to reduce its environmental footprint.
The Wilmington, Delaware-based company presented the material, known as Renewable LYCRA fiber, at the Textile Exchange Conference 2026 in Vancouver, Canada, alongside progress on technology intended to recover spandex from discarded textiles.
The renewable fiber uses dent corn grown primarily in Iowa as a feedstock. According to a third-party-reviewed life cycle assessment the company cites, the material can reduce its carbon footprint by up to 45% compared with conventional alternatives.
LYCRA said the fiber maintains stretch and recovery performance equivalent to its conventional spandex products, an important consideration for apparel manufacturers evaluating alternatives to petroleum-based materials.
The commercial production milestone distinguishes the renewable product from the company’s separate textile recycling initiative, which remains in the pilot stage.
“Bringing more recycled and renewable materials to commercial scale is essential to turning the industry’s ambitions into action,” said Alistair Williamson, vice president of product sustainability at The Lycra Company.
The company’s renewable fiber production replaces part of the conventional fossil-based raw material supply with agricultural feedstocks while retaining the performance characteristics required for stretch fabrics.
Separately, LYCRA has been working with textile recyclers to develop processes that separate spandex from nylon, polyester, and other fibers in textile waste.
Separately, LYCRA has been working with textile recyclers to develop processes that separate spandex from nylon, polyester, and other fibers in textile waste.
.png "image title")
Spandex is often blended with other materials to provide elasticity, creating technical challenges for recycling processes that must separate different fiber types before reuse.
The company’s pilot-stage process focuses on recovering spandex from pre-consumer textile waste and converting the recovered material into new spandex fibers.
LYCRA said its next objective is to expand the recycling infrastructure sufficiently to support production of LYCRA fiber containing recycled material.
The company is also collaborating with technology partners on methods to recover spandex from end-of-life textiles, although it has not established commercial-scale production from those sources.
“Creating commercially viable textile-to-textile recycling systems requires collaboration,” Williamson said.
The two initiatives address different parts of the textile industry’s material supply chain: reducing dependence on petroleum-derived feedstocks in new fiber production and developing systems to recover material that would otherwise become waste.
The work was presented during the Textile Exchange Conference’s 2026 program, which focused on implementing and scaling sustainability practices across textile manufacturing and supply chains.
For LYCRA, commercial production of renewable spandex is already underway, while textile-to-textile recycling still depends on further investment and expansion of recovery and processing systems.