From the Sector

Stretching Circularity is a collaborative project initiated by Fashion for Good dedicated to accelerating the adoption of lower-impact elastane alternatives that are compatible with circular textile systems. By validating bio-based and recycled elastane solutions through pilot-scale testing and demonstrator garments, the initiative aims to remove one of the most significant technical barriers to a circular textile economy.

Present in approximately 80% of all clothing, elastane is a material added in varying concentrations (typically from 1–5% by weight in cotton or wool garments to up to 20% in polyester or polyamide garments) to provide stretch and comfort. This fossil-based material creates two critical sustainability challenges:

• First, it contributes to carbon emissions and non-renewable resource consumption across the industry. 
• Second (and more critically for circularity), even minimal concentrations of elastane act as a “contaminant” in textile recycling feedstocks, compromising fibre-to-fibre recycling of high-volume fibres like polyester and cotton. This effectively blocks circularity for the vast majority of clothing, leaving the industry with limited options beyond downcycling or landfill.

Stretching Circularity is a project initiated by Fashion for Good which tackles this challenge through two key workstreams. One workstream focuses on testing next-generation elastane materials made from alternative inputs, including bio-based materials and other feedstocks. This phase includes the creation of “demonstrator” garments, specifically a technical t-shirt (with 10% elastane) and a non-technical t-shirt (with 2% elastane). The other focuses on testing regenerated elastane made through emerging recycling innovations. Both workstreams follow a pilot-scale validation approach to generate comparable data on performance, impact, economical feasibility and scalability.

Driving this work is a powerful coalition of industry stakeholders representing the entire value chain. The consortium includes Fashion for Good partners Levi Strauss & Co (Beyond Yoga), On, Paradise Textiles, Positive Materials, and Reformation, with Ralph Lauren Corporation as an Advisor. Supported by ecosystem experts like Materiom and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the group will support knowledge sharing across the consortium to identify gaps and generate comparative data to de-risk the adoption of these circular solutions for the wider industry. Stretching Circularity operates under a structured due diligence and validation framework to assess if alternative materials are not just conceptually sound but also meet the performance standards of conventional elastane. 

“Lower-impact elastane solutions exist, but they lack the pilot-scale validation brands need to scale them confidently,” Katrin Ley, Fashion for Good Managing Director. “This initiative seeks to provide that missing data, turning a well-known recycling “contaminant” into a functional component of a circular supply chain.”

“Elastane is one of the most overlooked blockers to true circularity in fashion: it’s everywhere and yet there is a significant challenge to recovering it at scale. Stretching Circularity is about tackling that problem at the root and proving that lower-impact stretch materials and new recycling pathways can meet real performance and design standards.” Carrie Freiman Parry, Senior Director of Sustainability at Reformation

Luxembourg-based OCSiAl, the global leader in industrial synthesis of graphene nanotubes, announces the appointment of Antigone Loudiadis as a director.
 
An investment entity owned by Ms. Loudiadis made a substantial investment in OCSiAl at the end of 2025. This investment followed an investment earlier that year by a Luxembourg “club” of investors.
 
Ms. Loudiadis founded and led Rothesay Life, one of the UK’s leading pension insurers. Prior to the establishment of Rothesay Life, Ms. Loudiadis was a partner at Goldman Sachs International and cohead of its European Investment Banking Division. Over the course of her 30-year career as a senior financial executive, she led complex structured and M&A transactions and managed senior relationships with governments and multinational institutions.
 
“I am very excited to be joining OCSiAl,” said Ms. Loudiadis. “It’s cutting-edge deep tech that takes established industries—like tires and coatings—to a new level. But it also goes hand in hand with the next step in the development of EVs, data centers, AI, robotics and aerospace.”
 
“I am delighted to have Addy on the board. She brings a rare combination of deep capital markets expertise and firsthand experience in building and governing large, capital-intensive businesses,” said Peter Cuneo, Chairman of the OCSiAl Board. “As OCSiAl accelerates its industrial scale-up and prepares for significantly larger long-term investments, her perspective will be invaluable in shaping our capital strategy, strengthening governance, and engaging with a broader base of global investors.”
 
As advanced materials increasingly take on strategic importance alongside energy and capital, OCSiAl’s current phase of industrial scale-up places the company at the center of this shift.

As car manufacturers look to further reduce their carbon footprint, Autoneum has developed an innovative front trunk solution for battery electric vehicles (BEVs), made entirely from polyester-based textile. The Ultra-Silent Frunk offers significant weight reduction, improved acoustic and thermal insulation, and uses up to 70 percent recycled material, supporting sustainable and efficient vehicle design. Autoneum, global technology leader in acoustic and thermal management for vehicles, has already received orders for the new frunk from three major OEMs in Asia and Europe to be built in three BEV models. Series production for two BEVs has been underway in China and Germany since last year. 

The global market for BEVs is growing dynamically. With rising demand, the technical development of BEVs is also advancing rapidly. In the front of a BEV, for example, the absence of a combustion engine creates additional storage space under the hood. For this front trunk space, also known as the frunk, Autoneum has developed a fiber-based 100 percent polyester product. This component is designed for high sustainability and combines lightweight, high mechanical robustness, and ex-cellent acoustic and thermal properties in a functionally integrated design. 

Strong Customer Interest and Successful Series Production Underway 
"With the innovative frunk made from our environmentally friendly Ultra-Silent polyester textile tech-nology, we are supporting automotive manufacturers in their goal of minimizing the CO₂ footprint of their products by integrating sustainable and lightweight components," explains Cyro Rovath, Global Product Manager Exterior at Autoneum. „To date, we have already received four awards for our Ultra-Silent Frunk from three major OEMs in Europe and Asia to be built in three BEV models. Successful series production for two BEV models in China and Germany has been underway since 2025, and production for two other vehicles built in China will start within the next few months." 

In comparison to conventional frunk systems made of multiple solid plastic parts requiring complex assembly, Autoneum's Ultra-Silent Frunk is engineered as a single, lightweight, monomaterial com-ponent that can be adapted to the technical and aesthetic requirements of automotive manufactur-ers. The elimination of individual components streamlines both manufacturing and assembly pro-cesses while delivering weight reductions exceeding 50 percent relative to conventional solutions – translating to savings of up to 5 kilograms depending on geometry, number of components and part size. 

Waste-Free Production and Full Recyclability 
Moreover, the Ultra-Silent Frunk uses up to 70 percent recycled material, cutting greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 50 percent compared to injection molded frunks. Its waste-free produc-tion and full recyclability at the end-of-life support the industry’s shift toward a circular economy. The textile frunk also significantly enhances both acoustic and thermal performance. Its highly sound-absorbing Ultra-Silent material helps reduce noise both inside and outside the vehicle. Addi-tionally, outstanding thermal insulation protects temperature-sensitive items stored in the frunk. Tests conducted under controlled conditions show that ice placed in the Ultra-Silent Frunk stayed frozen for up to 28 hours at an ambient temperature of 30°C, significantly outperforming conven-tional plastic alternatives. Based on simulations, the Ultra-Silent Frunk offers the potential to im-prove pedestrian protection and passive safety compared to injection molded plastic solutions due to its higher plasticity. 

Autoneum’s innovative frunk design combines functional, lightweight construction with acoustic and thermal efficiency while also using sustainable materials. Through these efforts, Autoneum is help-ing create environmentally friendly, future-oriented solutions for the automotive industry. 

A research team at Fudan University in Shanghai has successfully built complex electronic circuits inside thin, flexible fibers. This breakthrough, referred to as a fiber chip, allows fabrics to process information like a computer while remaining soft enough to be stretched, twisted, and woven into everyday clothing.

The development could transform industries like brain-computer interfaces — which allow the brain to communicate directly with external devices — as well as high-tech textiles and virtual reality.

Typically, computer chips are flat and rigid, built on stiff materials like silicon. And because fibers are curved and have very little surface area, it has been difficult to fit enough electronic parts onto them to make them useful. To solve this, the Fudan University team moved away from just using the surface of the fiber. Instead, they designed a multilayered spiral architecture, essentially building several layers of circuitry inside the fiber to use all the available internal space.

The team's experiments show that a fiber chip only 1 millimeter long can hold 10,000 transistors — the tiny switches that process data in electronics. This gives it the same processing power as a chip used in a heart pacemaker. If the fiber is extended to 1 meter, it could hold millions of transistors, reaching the power levels of a standard desktop computer processor.

The research, which challenges the traditional way computer chips are made, was published in the journal Nature.

For decades, scientists have added basic functions to fibers, such as the ability to store energy or sense touch. However, these smart fabrics usually had to be plugged into bulky, rigid computer chips in order to function. This made the clothing stiff and uncomfortable. The new fiber chip eliminates that need, allowing the fabric to think and act autonomously.

Our fabrication method is highly compatible with the current tools used in the chip industry, said Chen Peining, a researcher at Fudan University's Institute of Fiber Materials and Devices. We have already achieved a way to mass-produce these fiber chips.

The technology has significant implications for healthcare. In the BCI field, current systems use stiff electrodes that must be wired to external computers. The fiber chip could allow for a closed-loop system — where sensing, data processing, and medical stimulation all happen within a single, soft fiber.

Professor Peng Huisheng, a co-author of the study, noted that these fibers are as thin as 50 micrometers — thinner than a human hair — and as flexible as brain tissue. This makes them safer and more effective in the treatment of neurological diseases.

In the world of virtual reality, the technology could lead to smarter tactile gloves. Current VR gloves often use clunky hardware that makes them feel unnatural.

Smart tactile gloves made with fiber chips are indistinguishable from ordinary fabric, Chen said. They can sense and simulate the feel of different objects, which could be used by surgeons to 'feel' the hardness of tissue during a remote robotic surgery.

Haelixa, the Swiss-based deeptech provider of DNA-based product traceability, has raised EUR 2 million in a pre-series A investment round to support international scale and long-term strategic growth. 
 
The round was led by existing backers Verve Ventures and Zurich Kantonalbank, with participation from an impact-focused investor 212 NexT Fund. This complements the catalytic funding awarded through the Temasek Trust Amplifier programme. 
 
The investment will support Haelixa’s international expansion, targeted team growth, and deeper collaboration with textile brands and supply-chain partners. 
 
Physical Proof in an Era of Rising Risk 
Haelixa’s patented DNA-based technology physically marks raw materials at any stage of production and enables later verification of origin and authenticity. The plant-based, invisible DNA markers are embedded directly into raw materials and remain detectable throughout complex, multi-tier supply chains. 
 
As regulatory scrutiny increases, fashion brands face growing risks of fraud, undeclared blending, and substitution of premium materials, as well as mounting exposure to counterfeiting. These failures threaten compliance, brand equity, and consumer trust. By enabling verification directly on the product itself, Haelixa provides brands with a practical safeguard to protect material integrity and brand value. 
 
Haelixa’s technology is already used across fashion and textiles, as well as precious metals and gemstones, and is compliant with GOTS, Standard 100® by OEKO-TEX, and OEKO-TEX® Eco Passport. 
 
From Innovator to Investor-Backed Scale 
Haelixa originated as a spin-off from ETH Zurich and has since achieved scaled commercial adoption, generating seven-figure revenues and securing multi-year agreements with leading textile and fashion brands. 

The Lenzing Group is taking another strategic milestone by acquiring a controlling majority in the Swedish innovation company TreeToTextile AB. This step strengthens Lenzing’s position as a leading provider of sustainable, wood based specialty fibers and expands its innovation pipeline with a highly scalable, patent protected technology platform. The transaction is executed through the issuance of new shares. 

TreeToTextile represents the next major technological leap in cellulosic fiber production – following the development of viscose in the early 20th century and Lenzing’s own Lyocell technology in the 1990s. The process offers a significantly improved sustainability profile, attractive cost advantages, and broad applicability across textile and nonwoven markets. With the majority acquisition, Lenzing underscores its commitment to consistently advancing its premiumization strategy and further expanding its leadership position in the global specialty fiber market. 

“TreeToTextile is among the world’s most advanced next generation fiber technologies and represents the most promising development on the market. Since our initial investment in 2025, the collaboration between the innovative TreeToTextile team and Lenzing’s fiber experts has enabled significant technological progress. We are fully committed to the joint scale up and commercialization. H&M Group, Inter IKEA Group, and Stora Enso, will continue to support this path as minority shareholders, contributing valuable market and consumer perspectives,” says Georg Kasperkovitz, COO of Lenzing Group. LSCS Invest also reaffirms its confidence in the joint technology platform through its long standing commitment since the foundation of the company and continued role as a shareholder. 

“Innovation at industrial scale requires time, expertise, and strong partnerships. Lenzing Group’s increased ownership is a clear endorsement of our technology and our ambition to become a major player in the global fiber market,” says Dr. Roxana Barbieru, CEO of TreeToTextile. 

The transaction enables an accelerated scaling of the new technology. Lenzing plans a significant increase in production output at the existing demonstration plant in Nymölla, Sweden, as well as the preparation of the first industrial scale facility. In addition, the company expects operational synergies from an even closer collaboration.

The Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp participats at JEC World 2026, featuring a significantly expanded presence and an enhanced offering for the global composites industry.

Building on previous successes, the Alliance members will be at the core of a newly renamed and enlarged Bio-Materials Village in Hall 5. The village has grown by more than 30%, expanding from 250 m² to 333 m², and will feature 14 Alliance members and partners representing the full natural fibre composite value chain from fibre cultivation and processing through to semi-finished materials, resins, and industrial applications.

This year’s village welcomes several new members, including Norafin, which brings advanced technical nonwoven expertise using flax and hemp fibres, and innovative start-up Biofibix developing next-generation bio-based composite solutions. Another new participant is GreenPoxy by Sicomin, a leading supplier of bio-based epoxy resins that complement natural fibre reinforcement systems and enable lower-impact composite structures.

Innovations Showcase
The Bio-Materials Village will highlight several award-winning and shortlisted developments, including exhibits from JEC Innovation Award winners and finalists.

Bcomp has received the Automotive & Road Transportation Parts Award for its series-production exterior flax composite components developed for BMW, demonstrating the scalability and performance of flax reinforcements in demanding automotive applications. 

Safilin will also present its collaboration with Stratiforme on the Ecotrain project, showcasing the successful integration of natural fibre composites into rail interiors, delivering weight reduction, improved environmental performance, and industrial feasibility.

Biofibix, shortlisted among the 20 finalists of the 2026 JEC Startup Booster, will present its proprietary reinforcement technology designed to overcome one of the key challenges of natural fibre composites : structural consistency. Biofibix develops flax-based reinforcement systems that combine controlled fibre orientation with thermoplastic and thermoset compatibility, enabling improved mechanical performance and process reliability. 

Visitors will also discover the Ssuchy-Next project, an initiative focused on wind energy applications. The project explores the use of hemp-based composite solutions for a 12.6 m wind turbine blade, combining optimized fibre architecture, bio-sourced materials, and industrial manufacturing processes. Ssuchy-Next demonstrates how natural fibres can contribute to reduced carbon footprint, improved vibration damping, and end-of-life advantages, while meeting the mechanical and durability requirements of the wind energy sector.

Additional cutting-edge innovations on display will be showcased by other Alliance members and partners that include BComp, Circular Structures, DEMGY, Depestele, Ecotechnilin, Emanuel Lang Flax Composites, Flaxco, Libeco, Linificio e Canapificio Nazionale, Norafin, Safilin, Terre de Lin Technique, and many more. 

Industry Conference 
As part of the JEC Composite Exchange programme, Alliance experts will organize a round-table discussion on Wednesday 11 March at 2:00 pm Agora 5, titled:

“From Data to Applications: How Environmental and Technical Flax-Linen & Hemp Data Help Build Industrial Solutions.” The discussion will highlight how environmental metrics and technical performance data are essential tools for designers, engineers, and manufacturers in accelerating the adoption of natural fibre composites, while exploring the latest technical advances in flax-linen and hemp composites, their environmental performance, and the strategic pathways supporting the industrial deployment of bio-based composites in Europe.

The management of Kelheim Fibres GmbH informs that business operations will be terminated as of 31 March 2026. A continuation of the company beyond this date is not possible. 

The investor and sales process conducted within the framework of the self-administration did not lead to a positive outcome. The potential strategic investor who most recently entered the process has withdrawn from a potential investment at short notice. Independently of this, despite the support of a large proportion of customers and restructuring measures already implemented, it was not possible to achieve sufficient off-take volumes that would have been required for an economically viable continuation of business operations. This also included the absence of orders from a key customer. 

Following completion of the ongoing run-out production, the necessary measures to initiate an orderly shutdown process will be implemented. 

Employees were informed about the decision and the further procedure on 26 January 2026 in the course of an employee and works meeting. The Works Council and the self-administration have agreed on a reconciliation of interests and a social plan. In addition, a transfer company will be established to support employees in the transition to new employment relationships. 

“The self-administration has examined all realistic options for continuation. As the required commitments – including the approval of a key customer – were not in place, continuation is unfortunately not economically viable. This is a difficult situation for the employees; the focus is now on an orderly wind-down and the best possible support for the employees,” said the management.

Dibella is increasing its demand for Cotton made in Africa (CmiA)–verified cotton by 9% compared to the previous year (825 tonnes), reaching a total of 900 tonnes in 2026. This underscores the company’s strategic objective to continuously support the cultivation of sustainable fibers. 

By supporting CmiA cotton, Dibella makes a measurable contribution to greater sustainability along the textile value chain. CmiA stands for more resource-efficient cotton cultivation: reliance on natural rainfall instead of irrigation, the exclusion of hazardous pesticides, and low greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the initiative strengthens the economic resilience of smallholder farms in Sub-Saharan Africa. A key impact of CmiA lies in its social effect: through training programs on efficient agriculture, occupational safety, and gender equality, incomes are stabilized and living conditions sustainably improved. In addition, education, health, and infrastructure projects in the growing regions are financed. 

“Increasing our CmiA cotton volume is far more than just a number for us,” emphasizes Michaela Gnass, CSR Manager at Dibella. “It represents tangible improvements on the ground—for farming families, for environmental standards, and for more responsible textile production. The annual increase in the use of CmiA fibers in our supply chain is part of our sustainability strategy. As a provider of contract textiles, we see it as our duty to take responsibility and not merely to source materials.” 

Dibella uses Cotton made in Africa cotton in accordance with a mass balance approach. This enables the company to efficiently integrate sustainable cotton into existing production processes while systematically increasing demand for CmiA cotton. This creates an important lever for anchoring more sustainable cultivation methods in the market over the long term. In addition to the mass balance system, Cotton made in Africa also offers full traceability from the origin of the cotton to the finished product.

• The companies UBE and ZIKNES, the University of Valencia, and the AIMPLAS Plastics Technology Centre are collaborating on this project, funded by IVACE+i Innovation with support from ERDF funds.
• Applications include packaging, agricultural covers, automotive components and large-scale 3D demonstrators.
• Collaboration with Sea2See ensures the supply of recovered nets from Ghana and strengthens the project’s circular value chain.

The abandonment of fishing nets in seas and oceans is one of the most persistent environmental problems. In response to this situation, the REDES4VALUE project works to recover and recycle disused fishing nets, transforming them into new sustainable, high value-added products such as recycled nylon, films for packaging and agricultural covers, automotive components, and large-format parts produced by additive manufacturing. These developments are achieved through innovative mechanical and chemical recycling processes, combined with reactive extrusion technologies.

This initiative, funded by the Valencian Institute of Competitiveness and Innovation (IVACE+i) and ERDF funds, brings together a consortium formed by AIMPLAS (Plastics Technology Centre), UBE, ZIKNES and the University of Valencia. Their shared objective is to close the life cycle of polyamides and reduce marine pollution through innovative, industry-ready solutions.

Although many nets are made of polyethylene or polypropylene, the project focuses on polyamide nets, a material with great potential for chemical recycling. Its molecular structure allows the recovery of monomers such as caprolactam, enabling the production of new polyamides with properties virtually identical to those of virgin materials.

‘We are achieving optimised conditions for depolymerising fishing nets and recovering monomers with purities above 95% in some laboratory-scale streams, and over 80% at pilot scale”. This will allow us to repolymerise and obtain new polyamides with quality equivalent to virgin material,’ explains Nairim Torrealba, a researcher in Chemical Recycling at AIMPLAS.

Recycled polyamides are intended for sectors such as packaging, agriculture, automotive and 3D printing. Companies such as UBE are already analysing their commercialisation and ZIKNES is adapting its equipment to validate large-format parts. Initial applications include packaging films, agricultural covers, automotive components and large-scale 3D demonstrators.

‘These materials have immediate industrial applications and a clear sustainability advantage over conventional polyamides. These solutions not only reduce dependence on virgin raw materials, but also open up new opportunities for industry in terms of sustainability and the circular economy,’ said Torrealba.

Disruptive technology and international collaboration
REDES4VALUE is advancing in processes such as hydrothermal depolymerisation, ionic liquid-assisted solvolysis and reactive extrusion, as well as comprehensive life cycle and feasibility assessments. One of the main challenges of the project is the treatment of highly degraded nets with a high presence of impurities, but the results are very promising.

Collaboration with the Sea2See brand has ensured access to fishing nets recovered in Ghana since 2019 and has been key to structuring the project’s circular value chain from the waste source. ‘Without this supply of material, it would not be possible to move forward. The nets that arrive from Ghana are essential for validating the processes and obtaining real results,’ said Torrealba.

Consortium and next steps
The project involves AIMPLAS, which is responsible for chemical recycling tasks, UBE for scaling and repolymerisation, ZIKNES for 3D printing validation, and the MATS group at the University of Valencia (MATS-UV) for solvolysis and kinetics studies. ‘Our goal is to consolidate a chemical recycling line that can be applied to complex waste and demonstrate that it is a real and necessary solution,’ concluded Torrealba.

This initiative is funded by the Valencian Institute of Competitiveness and Innovation (IVACE+i), through the Strategic Cooperation Projects programme in its 2024 call for proposals, with co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).