While the use of recycled polyester has increased in the performance and fashion textiles sectors, these materials are largely derived from packaging recyclate, which doesn’t tackle the complex issue of recovering value from the many thousands of tonnes of polyester fibres which make it to landfill each year. Fibre regeneration technologies are coming online that aim to recover high quality polyester from mono-materials and blends, however, there are still numerous challenges to achieving the ideal of ‘circular polyester’. This systemic review looks at the challenges to achieving circular polyester from the perspective of stakeholders throughout the polyester lifecycle. Semi-structured interviews and co-design activities with 20 industry stakeholders were conducted to reveal their view on the main steps needed to achieve circular polyester. This research was conducted by design researchers as part of the Business of Fashion and Textiles Technology Creative Research & Development Partnership UK (BFTT), funded through the Creative Industries Clusters Programme (CICP) by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI). For this study co-design methods were utilised alongside the interviews to co-create a system-map for the current and future state of polyester from multiple perspectives. A roadmap was also co-created to make explicit the steps participants felt were necessary to reach this future potential. Finally, the maps were validated through a focus group between participants and researchers. The maps were visualised by Author 3 to communicate the research to wider audiences. One of the main outcomes that we will focus on in this paper are six opportunities in policy, research and industry to work towards the concept of circular polyester.