From Polyester Power to Cotton’s Fall: A Fiber Tale in Fashion

Fashion is defined by the raw materials map. Global production of fibers for the industry continues to rise, breaking production records year after year. In 2024, the figure peaked again, with global production reaching 123 million tons for the entire year, 5.6% more than in the previous year, thereby raising the greenhouse gas emissions required for its production. From the unchecked dominance of polyester to the gradual decline of cotton, what does the fashion map look like fiber by fiber?

“Ten years have passed since the Paris Agreement, whereby countries around the world pledged to keep global temperatures 1.5 degrees below pre-industrial levels,“ explains Beth Jensen, impact director at Textile Exchange. According to data published by the entity in its latest annual report, however, “the fashion industry’s emissions associated with the production of raw materials have continued to increase significantly.“

Specifically, in the last five years the figure has risen by up to 20%, a trend associated with the continuous increase in global fashion production. Since the signing of the international agreement, in fact, fashion has increased its output by 34 million tons, to account for around four tons of fibers produced every second. “There has been progress, but the time we have to transform our models is running out,“ warned the directive.

Fashion has raised its emissions related to fiber production by 20% in five years

Polyester, the king of fashion

Polyester is the most widely used material in the industry, with annual production reaching 78 million tons in 2024, 9.8% more than in the previous year. This raw material has become indispensable for fashion, accounting for more than half, 59%, of the world’s total production of textile fibers.

It belongs to the group of synthetic fibers derived from fossil fuels, which account for 88% of the total. Along with polyester, other fossil materials such as polyamide (commonly known as nylon) and elastane are also used. However, it is polyester that concentrates most of the weight, with an annual production of 68 million tons in 2024, 96% more than the previous year.

Fashion’s attempts towards a more sustainable model have led to a recycled side of polyester, which at the end of last year reached a production of 9.3 million tons, 4.5% more than in 2023. The fact that virgin polyester also increased, however, has led to a slight reduction in the market share of this recycled material, to 12% of all polyester production, compared with 12.5% the previous year. The majority, moreover, Textile Exchange alerts, is still extracted from plastic recycled from plastic bottles, and the use of other textiles to create new polyester fibers is less than 2% of the total (1% for all fibers).

Recycled polyester lost market share last year, despite an increase in absolute production

Despite the difficulties, both technical and economic, of scaling up chemical recycling, some recyclers have already begun commercial production of recycled polyester through this method, and more and more companies are researching and developing the technology. “The market share of this material will increase in the coming years,“ the agency is confident.

Polyamide, meanwhile, is the second most widely used synthetic material, with a market share of 5% of global production. Last year, fashion used a total of seven million tons of polyamide or nylon. The difficulty of recycling this material, together with the price difference compared to virgin polyamide, according to the entity, means that recycled polyamide accounts for 2% of the total production of this fiber, or 0.2 million tons. In this case, however, it does come from pre- and post-consumer waste.

In the case of elastane, on the other hand, global production was close to 1.5 million tons in 2024, accounting for 1.1% of the market share, while polypropylene accounted for 2.4%, or 3.4 million tons, and acrylic fabric, a plastic substitute for wool, fell to 1.6 million tons, 1.2% of the total.

Recycled cotton produced last year reached 0.3 million tons

Cotton, sustainable icon

Cotton rises as the second most used material by fashion, although its production fell by 1.2% in 2024, to 24.5 million tons. The market share within fashion, therefore, also fell last year, by one percentage point, from 20% to 19% of the total.

As with polyester, cotton can be virgin or recycled, the former being the largest of these, which also includes the production of organic cotton, one of fashion’s preferences for sourcing this material in a more sustainable way.

Worldwide, virgin cotton production was 24.1 million tons, of which approximately 706,000 tons were certified as organic cotton, 2.9% of the total. Recycled cotton, on the other hand, had a total production of 0.3 million tons, approximately 1% of all cotton.

In the group of natural fibers, the report also highlights flax, hemp and jute. As a whole, natural fibers other than cotton accumulated a production of 6.9 million tons, or 6% of total fiber production.

In 2024, 13.8 million tons of leather and 1 million tons of wool were produced

Leather, cellulose and wool

Global leather production reached 13.8 million tons in 2024, from 1.6 billion livestock animals. In the area of leather recycling, most of this material comes from post-industrial waste, rather than pre-consumer waste, left over from the process of making other garments or accessories.

Wool, a fiber of animal origin, accounted for 1 million tons of production, especially from sheep, accounting for 0.9% of world production. Recycled wool, on the other hand, accounted for 7% of the total of this material worldwide. The report also highlights within this group, mohair fiber, from a type of goat, which reached 4,748 tons, or alpaca, with 6,200 tons at the end of 2024. Cashmere, one of the materials most present in the luxury sector, reached a world production of 25,611 tons, with more than 69% coming from China, according to data from Textile Exchange.

The last major group is cellulosic fibers, such as viscose or lyocell, with a production in 2024 of 8.4 million tons. The predominance of viscose stands out, which last year reached a production of 6.7 million tons, followed far behind by acetate (1.1 million), lyocell (0.4 million tons) or rayon (0.2 million).