ReHubs, the Brussels-based textile recycling platform backed by the European Apparel and Textile Confederation (Euratex), has named Béatrice Moureaux as chief executive officer with a mandate to scale fibre-to-fibre recycling capacity across Europe.

The appointment places Moureaux at the head of a pre-competitive collaboration launched in 2022 to coordinate industrial investment in textile sorting, dismantling and recycling infrastructure across the European Union. The platform's commercial premise: no single operator can economically close the textile loop without shared collection logistics, standardised feedstock specifications and coordinated offtake agreements.

What does the appointment change operationally?

ReHubs has until now functioned as a coordinating body for textile manufacturers, recycling technology providers and brands seeking access to circular feedstock. The platform runs collection pilots with municipalities, qualifies recycled fibre against brand specifications and brokers multi-year offtake commitments.

Elevating a permanent CEO signals a shift from advocacy and pilot work toward commercial throughput at a moment when EU regulation is converting circularity pledges into compliance deadlines.

Moureaux brings experience in textile supply-chain sustainability programmes and has participated in EU-level working groups on textile waste policy. Her remit covers feedstock aggregation, member-state sorting infrastructure and alignment with the harmonised feedstock categories expected under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) digital product passport regime for textiles.

What is the recycling gap ReHubs must close?

Industry estimates put global textile-to-textile fibre recovery below 1% of fibre production. Mechanical recycling of cotton-rich feedstock has reached industrial scale in Portugal, Belgium and Turkey, but chemical recycling of polyester–cellulose blends remains pre-commercial outside a handful of demonstration lines. Polyester represents roughly 54% of global fibre production, and most recycled polyester sold today derives from PET bottles rather than clothing.

The mismatch between polyester's dominance in the fibre mix and the recycling infrastructure built for cellulose creates a structural barrier. Most European sorting facilities are configured for cotton-rich streams, while the dominant fibre by volume is synthetic. This feedstock mismatch is what ReHubs' aggregation function is designed to resolve.

Closing the economics between collectors, sorters and recyclers is the platform's core commercial problem. ReHubs has worked with brands including Inditex, H&M and Decathlon on recycled-fibre offtake, though it does not publish aggregate throughput figures.

The platform's near-term focus will be on qualifying chemically recycled cellulosic output for mainstream apparel specifications and on aggregating sufficient volumes of post-consumer feedstock to underwrite long-term offtake contracts with recyclers.

What regulatory deadlines decide what happens next?

Two milestones will test whether the platform's model holds. The first is full implementation of mandatory separate textile waste collection across EU member states from 1 January 2025, established under the 2024 revision of the Waste Framework Directive. This sets the floor for sorted feedstock entering the recycling stream and forces municipalities to build or contract sorting capacity.

The second is the ESPR delegated act for textiles, expected in 2026, which will define recycled-content thresholds, fibre-level traceability requirements and product passport data fields that determine brand demand for recycled fibre.

Extended producer responsibility schemes will determine whether producers fund the gap between collection costs and recycling economics. Member-state schemes diverge in design: France's Refashion and the Netherlands' scheme-in-development both charge per garment placed on market and modulate rates for recyclability and recycled-content claims. Belgium's textile EPR entered force in 2024 under Valipac; Hungary's follows in 2025.

The European Commission's textile strategy, published in 2022, sets a target of making textile reuse and recycling the norm by 2030. Whether that target is credible depends on the trajectory of investment in sorting and recycling capacity between now and the ESPR delegated act's entry into force.

Together, the January 2025 collection mandate, the 2026 ESPR delegated act and the divergence in member-state EPR fee structures will determine whether ReHubs can move from pilot volumes to industrial throughput during Moureaux's tenure. The platform's next reporting milestone will show whether offtake commitments are converting into contracted recycling line capacity.