Accelerating Circularity starts polyester recycling trial

Accelerating Circularity’s objective is to design and implement commercial technologies that repurpose textile waste as raw material through reuse and recycling, preventing it from being burnt or disposed of in landfills. ACCELERATING CIRCULARITY EUROPE has spent the last year working with its European Steering Committee, Spent Textile, and Brand & Retailer Working Groups to investigate, map, and identify knowledge and infrastructure to accelerate the transition to circular systems; this work is now complete. The next stage is to enter the trial phase to show what is doable at scale. The first trials will concentrate on polyester textile feedstocks from post-consumer and post-industrial sources. Both mechanically and chemically recycled fibers will come from these sources.

Karla Magruder, Accelerating Circularity Founder and President, said that according to the EU Commission Strategy1, by 2030, textile products placed on the EU market will be long-lasting and recyclable, manufactured to a large degree of recycled fibers. The circular textiles ecosystem will thrive, powered by sufficient capacity for novel fiber-to-fiber recycling, while textile incineration and landfilling will be minimized. The trials of ACCELERATING CIRCULARITY EUROPE are completely aligned with this strategy.

Magruder added that their work has been founded on the joint efforts of more than 80 members of their working groups from the EU-27, as well as members from Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Morocco, and Turkey. With the textile-to-textile polyester testing, their objective is to establish circular systems at scale so that their participants can truly demonstrate viability.

Martin Böschen, CEO, TEXAID, said that they require collaboration to build the necessary value chains and the business case in order to grow textile-to-textile recycling utilizing post-consumer textile waste. By participating in the ACCELERATING CIRCULARITY EUROPE trials, they want to contribute to the development of these technologies and allow items to be manufactured using raw materials derived from post-consumer textile waste.

Dr. Martin Mayershofer, Research & Development at Sympatex, Focus Closing the Loop, said that to effectively stop the textile waste loop, national, if not worldwide, collecting mechanisms and infrastructure for end-of-life textiles must be built. Brand-specific return systems will not suffice, not only from an economic and efficiency standpoint, but also from a customer acceptance standpoint. ACCELERATING CIRCULARITY EUROPE systems trials for polyester will bring together various players in a future circular textile value chain to test and validate polyester fiber-to-fiber recycling at scale, right here in Europe, and thus perfectly meet these requirements. At Sympatex, they think that an industry-wide, collaborative pursuit of circularity and reclosing the textile loop is essential.

Regina Goller, Director Fabric & Trim Management Apparel for Jack Wolfskin, said that ACCELERATING CIRCULARITY EUROPE has brought together the best brains in the European design and textile sectors to create genuine, attainable solutions that will revolutionize the garment business for the better in the long run. True circularity will provide synthetic materials that are critical for performance, comfort, and protection with numerous lifetimes with low environmental effects. For decades, Jack Wolfskin has been inspired by design for sustainability. They will be able to design ideal methods and execute them throughout the marketplace by partnering with their colleagues in the sector.

Amazon, Antex, Avery Dennison, Brav, Covation Biomaterials, Craghoppers, Elis Textil Service, Enviu, Erema Group, European Outdoor Group, Eurotex, GIZ / Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, Gr3n, Jack Wolfskin, Oberalp, Recyclatex Group, Reverse Resources, Sympatex, TEXAID, VAUDE, WWF, Zalando are among the partners involved in the ACCELERA

ACCELERATING CIRCULARITY EUROPE is also planned cellulosic trials of mechanically and chemically recycled cotton for circular knits and woven products with its partners RecoverTM, Lenzing (RefibraTM), Inditex, Tomra, and many more throughout the value chain.