Textination Newsline

Manufacture, wear, wash, incinerate: This typical life cycle of garments, which pollutes the environment, is to be changed in the future – towards principles of circular economy with recycling at its core. Using an outdoor jacket made from PET bottles and recycled materials, Empa researchers have investigated whether the product actually delivers what the idea promises.

At first glance, it's a normal rain jacket: three layers of polyester, a lining on the inside, a water vapor-permeable membrane on top and water-repellent fabric on the outside, with a hood. But the zipper makes you wonder. Instead of ending at collar height, it pulls up over the forehead ... – who would pull it that far?

The explanation is given by Annette Mark from textile manufacturer BTK Europe, who contributed to this product. The zipper is intended to be an eye-catcher – and is primarily for recycling: Sewn tight with a thread that dissolves in boiling water, it is easier to remove than two fasteners. "Pull once and you're done," says the expert on textiles and recycling. The light green color is also due to recycling: The raw material, a granule made from a mixture of different but single-variety textiles, is dark green – and melting and spinning out the material for new yarns lightens it.

Circular economy within textile industry
Magnetic buttons, seams, hems: Every detail of the jacket follows the Design2Recycle approach, as it says on the Wear2wear website. Six companies from Europe's textile industry have joined forces in this consortium to promote circular economy. After all, more than 70 percent of all textiles produced worldwide end up in landfills or incinerators without being recycled.

How can circular economy be acheived in this industry? A team from Empa's Technology and Society lab took a closer look at the jacket and its environmental impact using life cycle analyses over a four-year period of use; including washing it three times. The candidates: a jacket produced without circular economy methods, the "starter version" of the jacket available since 2019 in blue – with an outer layer made of polyester derived from used PET bottles – and the green version from the subsequent recycling process, in which unavoidable material losses are replaced by new polyester.

The researchers' analyses show that the recycled products perform better – in eleven environmental risk categories, including global warming, toxicity to ecosystems and water scarcity. There are strikingly large advantages in air pollution, for example, because fewer pollutants are released without incineration, as well as in water scarcity, especially for the green jacket after the first recycling "loop," for which PET bottles are no longer used.

Other insights from the analyses: In terms of greenhouse effect, the maximum benefit is a good 30 percent. And the use of PET bottles does not bring any major ecological benefits. What is decisive, on the other hand, is the number of recycling cycles to produce new jackets: The balance improves from jacket to jacket – provided the quality of the polyester remains high enough.

In practice, this is challenging, as Mark explains: "Depending on the origin, the raw material sometimes differs significantly." If the fibers have been coated with certain additives, the nozzles of the spinning machines can become clogged. And in general, the quality decreases with the number of recycling cycles: more irregular structures of the yarn and lower strength.

Annette Mark's conclusion on the Empa analyses: "very realistic" and useful for improvements. "The cooperation was very good," she says, "full transparency and no compromises." The researchers also found the collaboration fruitful. "Open collaboration between science and industry is enormously important," says former team member Gregor Braun, who has since left Empa and now works as a consultant for sustainability. "Sustainability and circular economy can work well together."

Will the jacket become a market success? "The textile industry is in a state of upheaval. A rethinking is taking place right now that we shouldn't miss," says Annette Mark. But large corporations that are already developing similar products "have completely different options." After all, talks are underway with a sportswear manufacturer – for a fleece jacket, for which the Empa findings could also be useful.

Microplastic fibers from textiles
Textiles made of polyester are making the headlines because of the release microplastic fibers – for instance, during washing – which is sometimes considered a threat to humans and the environment. Empa experts have studied the formation and release of microplastic fibers. Their results: Fibers are released primarily at the fabric's edges. Their formation and release depends, among other things, on the type of fiber, surface treatment and the type of cutting. Compared to other textiles, significantly fewer fibers are released from laser-cut textiles during washing. Empa is conducting studies with industrial partners to further reduce the formation of these fibers during textile production. In Swiss wastewater treatment plants, however, microfibers are largely removed from wastewater and incinerated with the sludge.

SCIRT stands for System Circularity & Innovative Recycling of Textiles. Coordinated by VITO, an independent Flemish research organisation in the cleantech and sustainable development sector, SCIRT is a three year EU-funded project from the Horizon 2020 Programme.

It aims to demonstrate a complete textile-to-textile recycling system for discarded clothing—or post-consumer textiles—involving stakeholders throughout the value chain and focusing on the recycling of natural fibres, synthetic fibres and fibre blends. To reach this goal, the project has set four main objectives.

• Deliver a closed-loop recycling solution for discarded textiles.
• Stimulate and encourage conscious design as well as production practices.
• Create new business opportunities by boosting textile value chain activity.
• Raise awareness of the environmental and social impacts of buying clothes.

Gathering 18 partners from five countries, the SCIRT project held its virtual kick-off meeting in mid-2021 to begin tackling the issue of clothing waste and recyclability, one of the biggest challenges faced in the fashion industry today.

As clothing brands are setting ambitious targets and making promises to incorporate recycled fibres in their products, discarded textiles are piling up in abundance around the globe. Though it would seem that the stars of supply and demand have aligned for this part of the circular economy, the truth is that less than 1% of textile waste is recycled into new textile fibres, according to an Ellen MacArthur Foundation report published in 2017. This miniscule percentage is indicative of a greater problem-achieving circularity in the fashion industry is not just a question of supply and demand, but of the connection between the two. There is a lack of knowledge surrounding the technological, economic and environmental feasibility of recycling fibre mixtures, and a need to align the quality and cost of recycling processes with the demands of textile companies and fashion brands.

SCIRT will develop solutions to support systemic innovation towards a more circular fashion system and bridge this supply-demand gap. To address the demand side of the equation, SCIRT will demonstrate a complete textile-to-textile recycling system for discarded clothing, otherwise known as post-consumer textiles, involving stakeholders throughout the value chain and focusing on the recycling of natural and synthetic fibres, as well as fibre blends. With the support of technical partners and research institutes, clothing brands Decathlon, Petit Bateau, Bel & Bo, HNST and Xandres, will develop, prototype and produce six different representative types of apparel using post-consumer recycled fibres. These include formal and casual wear, sportswear, underwear and uniforms. Through this endeavour, SCIRT will prioritise quality and cost-effectiveness in order to ensure market confidence and encourage the broad uptake of post-consumer recycled fibres.

From a non-technological perspective, SCIRT will develop supporting policy measures and tools to facilitate the transition towards a circular system for apparel. This includes a framework for an eco-modulated Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system and a True Cost Model to quantify circularity and increase value chain transparency. Special attention will also be given to the consumer perspective. To this end, Citizen Labs engaging consumers in various European locations, as well as a wider online engagement platform, will be developed to engage citizens throughout the project in order to understand the perceptions, motivations and emotions shaping their behaviour regarding the purchase, use, and disposal of textiles.

Over the next three years, SCIRT project partners will work to overcome current technological, economic, socio-economic and regulatory barriers faced in textiles recycling to achieve a real, lasting circular fashion economy.

2021:
The SCIRT project kicks off and partners identify the current state-of-the-art in apparel design, production and recycling, challenges and market trends, and stakeholder needs.

2022:
Designing and testing a fibre-to-fibre system by producing recycled yarns and filaments, free from harmful substances.

2023:
Formal wear, casual wear, sportswear, underwear and uniforms will be designed and produced using the optimized yarns developed.

Partners

• Fashion companies: Bel&Bo, HNST, Decathlon, Xandres, Petit Bateau
• Research organisations: VITO, CETI, Prospex Institute
• Universities: BOKU, TU Wien, ESTIA
• Industry players: Altex, AVS Spinning - A European Spinning Group (ESG) Company, Valvan
• SMEs: Circular.fashion, FFact
• Non-profit organisations: Flanders DC, IID-SII

ALTEX
ALTEX is a textile recycling company based in Germany that employs state-of-the-art machinery to recycle textile waste into new high-quality products. Its products include teared fibres, natural fibres, synthetic fibres and fibre blends among others.

Bel & Bo
Bel&Bo is a family-owned Belgian business with about 95 retail stores located throughout Belgium. Its mission is to offer colourful, fashionable and sustainably produced clothing for men, women and children at an affordable price.

CETI
The European Center for Innovative Textiles (CETI) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to conceiving, experimenting with and prototyping innovative textile materials and products through both private and collaborative R&D projects.

circular.fashion
circular.fashion offers software for circular design, intelligent textile sorting and closed-loop recycling, including the Circular Design Software and the circularity.ID®, as well as training and hands-on support to fashion brands in their transitions.

Decathlon
With over 315 stores in France, and 1,511 around the world, Decathlon has been innovating since 1976 to become the main player for athletic people. It has been engaged in reducing its environmental impact through a number of actions.

ESG
The European Spinning Group (ESG) is a textile group based in Belgium that offers a range of yarns produced with a highly technological open-end spinning mill for different applications, such as for interiors, fashion and technical textiles.

ESTIA
ESTIA is a French institute that has provided education and training in the areas of industrial technologies for 20 years. Since 2017, ESTIA has had a program focused on new materials and disruptive process in the fashion and textile industry.

FFACT
FFact is a unique group of management consultants that facilitates the implementation of sustainability from a business perspective, and translates facts into useful management information. FFact is based in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Flanders DC
The Flanders District of Creativity, a non-profit organisation based in Belgium, informs, coaches, promotes and inspires creative entrepreneurs in various sectors, including the fashion industry, who want to build or grow their business.

HNST
HNST is a Belgian circular denim brand that recovers post-consumer denim and recycles it into new fabric in the EU, creating durable and 100% recyclable jeans that use 82% less water and emit 76% less carbon dioxide than conventional jeans.

Petit Bateau
Petit Bateau is a French apparel brand that specialises in knit products. As a vertical company, Petit Bateau carries out its own knitting, dyeing, making up and store management with the support of its 3,000 employees.

Prospex Institute
The Prospex Institute aims to promote the participation of citizens and stakeholders in socially relevant decision-making dialogue and development by engaging with theorists and practitioners both in Belgium and abroad.

IID-SII
The Sustainable Innovation Institute is a French non-profit association based in Paris. Initiated by LGI, a French SME, the purpose of IID-SII is to act as a think and do tank on sustainable innovation to support the adoption of novel solutions.

TU Wien
TU Wien is an open academic institution where research, teaching and learning have taken place under the motto “Technology for people” for the past 200 years. One of its key areas of research is on recycling technology and fibre innovation.

BOKU
Research at the Institute for Environmental Biotechnology of BOKU based in Vienna, Austria focus on the exploitation of enzymes as powerful biocatalysts for biomaterials processing within recycling applications.

Valvan
Valvan Baling Systems has 30 years of experience in designing and constructing custom-made machinery, specialising in Baling Machines and Sorting Facilities for fibre producers, collectors, sorters and recyclers of textiles.

VITO
VITO, a leading independent European research and technology organisation in the cleantech and sustainable development sectors, aims to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable society by developing sustainable technologies.

Xandres
Xandres is a brand inspired by and for women. It is rooted in a highly respected tradition of fashion, driven by quality and created for the life women lead today. Xandres offers innovative designs with respect for luxury and the environment.