TEXTENDED

Knowledge based Framework for Extended Textile Circulation

Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy (VTT), RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB (RISE), Centre Scientifique & Technique del’industrie Textile Belge ASBL (CTB), Centro Technologico das Industrias Textil e do Vestuario de Portugal (CIT), AIMPLAS, Carr Communications Limited (CARR), Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto Oy (LSJH), Greenway Lo (Tekologistik) (TEKO), Tally Weijl Trading AG (TAW), PurFi Manufacturing Bv Belgium (PURF), UTEXBEL NV (UTEX), ERT Têxtil Portugal, S.A. (ERT), Rester Oy (RES), Mtex New Solution S.A. (MTEX), Zala Briviba Biedriba (Green Liberty) (ZALA), INESC TEC – The Institute of Systems and Computer Engineering,Technology and Science (INES), Narodna recyklacna agentura Slovensko (NARA), Texteis J.F. Almeida S.A: (JFA), SOPREMA (SOP), vzw Kringloopcentrum Zuid-West-Vlaanderen (KLW).

Objectives

The overall objective of the tExtended project is to develop a knowledge-based Blueprint, i.e. a master plan for a sustainable textile ecosystem. The basis of the Blueprint is a Conceptual framework determining the optimized utilization of textile flows, aiming for retention of value of materials in a safe and sustainable way. Based on the Blueprint, we will implement a real scale demonstrator, verifying its replicability and potential to reduce textile waste by 80 %.

Description

The accumulation of textile waste is a global challenge waiting to be solved by efficient recycling solutions. The end-of-life (EoL) textile materials are generated by industries, commercial actors and consumers alike. In average, Europeans use nearly 26 kg, and discard 11 kg of textiles every year, most of which (87%) is either incinerated or landfilled. The society at large is aware of the challenges related to textile waste and there are various on-going initiatives aiming at solving these. In European Union (EU) the separate collection of textile waste will be mandatory by 2025. The European Commission has identified textiles as a priority product category for the circular economy,
and the European textile strategy is to be published in early 2022 and implemented in forthcoming years. In addition to activities supporting the collection and recycling of textile waste, the textile strategy is expected to address overall sustainability and circularity of the textile sector, including the product framework, access and support to new business models and re-use and repair services, and circular materials and processes.

At the moment, utilization of recycled textile waste is focused on down-cycling and it has been estimated that only less than 1 % of textiles are recycled to be used as a secondary raw material for textile production. There is a need to develop solutions to recover and valorise a significant part of these waste fractions, increase the reuse of products and materials, and emphasize up-cycling back to secondary materials instead of down-cycling. This requires both removal of technological barriers, such as lack of data, under-utilization of digitalization, lack of infrastructure and feasible processes, and non-technological barriers, such as waste regulations, standardisation, ownership and fair sharing of benefits. Development of technologies and infrastructure for textile circularity incurring from separate collection has been strong e.g. in the Northern and Western part of Europe. This expertise should be transferred, and best practises and models for collaboration should be replicated to cover all corners of EU. Deployment of industrial urban symbiosis (I-US) and developing circularity hubs enable tackling fundamental issues related to end-of-life materials.