nova Session: Textile Recycling

Fibre-to-fibre recycling in Europe is at a promising stage of development, driven by technological innovation, political support and growing consumer awareness. Nevertheless, further efforts are needed to overcome the existing challenges and make the recycling of textiles an integral part of the European circular economy.

The challenge of textile recycling is the frequent use of mixed fibres. New technologies for the production of new fibres e.g. from the cellulosic part of the textile waste offers a “fibre to fibre” solution for the industry in line with the EU textile strategy. Recycling of textiles into new fibres is an important factor to be promoted on a wider scale: using existing resources is a smart strategy. However, the textile industry currently uses less than 10% recycled fibres. New regulations from Brussels will increase the proportion of recycled fibres in textiles, and the necessary logistics and technologies must be in place to recycle textiles on a large scale. Inadequate regulation of textile waste management is a major factor contributing to the loss of much of this material through incineration. Another critical issue is the challenge of recycling textiles that have been mixed with other materials. This raises the question of what new and advanced technologies are available to process mixed textile waste.

Within the regulatory framework, the industry has to deal with tightening legislation that prohibits landfilling and incineration and instead promotes reuse and recycling. In addition, consumers have started to demand more sustainable products and value chains, so brand owners are also responding. This change also requires broad cooperation between all stakeholders in the textile value chain.

The nova session: textile recycling will present leading large-scale, state-of-the-art engineering and service solutions from Valmet (FI): Heli Kangas and Andritz (AT): Elina Pesonen. These technology practitioners will be complemented by chemical recycling expert Lars Krause from nova Institute, who is also the author of the chemical recycling study and project leader of the Advanced Recycling Conference. Another expert on textile recycling is from the leading Spanish research institute AIMPLAS: Mireia Fernandez Bazan, Prof. Dionisios Vlachos from University of Delaware (US) will shed light on the Chemical Recycling of Mixed Textiles.