WILMINGTON, DE — 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-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 cited by the company, the material can reduce its carbon footprint by as much as 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.
Spandex is frequently blended with other materials to provide elasticity, creating technical challenges for recycling processes that must separate different fiber types before they can be reused.
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 intended to recover spandex from end-of-life textiles, although commercial-scale production from those sources has not been established.
“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 represents a manufacturing development already underway, while textile-to-textile recycling remains dependent on further investment and expansion of recovery and processing systems.
Support the local news that supports Chester County. MyChesCo delivers reliable, fact-based reporting and essential community resources—free for everyone. If you value that, click here to become a patron today.