From the Sector

During its first General Assembly, 18 European companies and organisations have formally joined ReHubs. They represent different segments of the circular textile value chain and share a common commitment to invest in textile recycling capacity in Europe. Additional partners are expected in the near future.

Current ReHubs partners are BASF, Boer Group, Coleo, Concordia Textiles, Decathlon, EURATEX, Gherzi Textil Organisation, Inditex, Indorama Ventures, Mango, PEPPER-i2, Purfi, Ratti, Recover, Refashion, Resortecs, Rester, RETEX.GREEN and TEXAID.

All partners will support ReHubs Executive Director, Chris Deloof, to kick start activities in the coming months. ReHubs partners will elaborate together on further steps and activities for the forthcoming work plan and the development of the European Textile Recycling Roadmap.

Chris Deloof commented: “I am delighted to see such a strong group of organisations teaming up with ReHubs. They are a great example of how to establish a new circular textile value chain in Europe. We need to focus now on rolling out ReHubs investment projects and further expanding our partners and investors network.”

The EU's planned ban on the entire group of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) would endanger many industrial processes, states VDMA Textile Machinery. Textile manufacturing would be affected twice – by missing important chemicals for technical textile production and by the lack of indispensable textile machine components. The latter would affect the whole supply chain from textile machinery manufacturers and its suppliers to the textile industry in the EU.

Solid PFAS parts are widely used in textile machinery production, especially where extreme conditions prevail. Verena Thies, Managing Shareholder Thies GmbH & Co. KG, explains: “Our textile dyeing machines are world leaders and set standards in efficiency and sustainability. They work under pressure at temperatures of up to 140° C using highly acidic, highly basic and/or oxidative or even reductive chemicals. This is precisely why PFAS is needed, for example, in seals and rings, flaps as well as valves for a long-lasting and high-quality machine concept – because there are no alternatives with qualitatively equivalent properties. In addition, PTFE semi-finished products enable a sliding and gentle contact with the textile fabric in ecologically important techniques in the transformation of textile wet finishing."

PTFE and also FKM are fluoropolymers (fluoroplastics and fluoroelastomers), a group within the broad PFAS range of about 10,000 substances which would be banned for production, use and sale in the EU. They are high-tech materials, and as so-called "polymers of low concern" are not a danger to the environment, according to the OECD. Furthermore, these components are installed inside a machine and exchanged or disposed of properly. PFAS such as PTFE and FKM must be exempted from the ban, demands the VDMA in its position paper.

"In this way, the association also supports the approach taken in Great Britain. With the 10,000 substances, everything is lumped together, although the various PFAS groups are very different," warns Dr Sarah Brückner, Head of VDMA Environmental Affairs and Sustainability. "We should take our cue from the UK and look at the substance groups in a differentiated way."
Apart from several types of dyeing machines, PFAS components are indispensable in textile drying machines (e.g., conveyor dryers, tumblers and stenters) and damping machines. They are also used in fully automatic chemical dispensing systems and pressure vessels for thermochemical treatment of textile recycling material, heat recovery systems and wastewater treatment technology. This means that a lot of machines needed for a sustainable textile production would be affected by the PFAS ban.

VDMA Textile Machinery will take part in the ongoing EU public consultation. The association will describe indispensable key functionalities and conditions of use in the textile machinery sector as well as the consequences for the companies and the customers in the EU if the ban is imposed. The consultation ends on September 25, 2023, and VDMA urged its members affected by the planned restriction to participate in the consultation at an early stage. This is the only way to ensure that the broad scope of the mechanical and plant engineering sector is represented.

100 days before ITMA 2023 in Milan, VDMA Textile Machinery launched its “Way2ITMA” webinar series. “Transforming the World of Textiles: efficient – digital – circular”. Under this heading, VDMA technology providers will present their solutions along the value chain.

Speakers of the virtual event were Dr. Janpeter Horn, Chairman of the VDMA Textile Machinery Association and Managing Director of August Herzog Maschinenfabrik, Dirk Vantyghem, Director General, EURATEX, Francis Elias Junker, Area Sales Manager, Andritz Laroche and Tanja Karila, Chief Marketing Officer, Infinited Fiber Company.

With regard to the EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles, Dr. Horn said: “This topic concerns all of us, consumers and producers. We as machinery builders position ourselves as enablers. We want to be part of the solution of this ambitious project”.

Dirk Vantyghem introduced the core issues of the EU textile strategy launched in 2022, which is the most ambitious plan ever, to push the textile sector towards sustainability and transparency, and promote a new circular business model. If wrongly designed, that new framework may collapse the European textile value chain. But if done rightly, the changes ahead could bring a paradigm shift in the sector, where competitiveness is no longer based on price only, but also on sustainability and innovation, explained Vantyghem.

Francis Elias Junker showed high level of expertise for mechanical textile recycling for both spinning and nonwovens industries that Andritz has. The company has a diversity of solutions to offer and several cooperation partners, covering the value chain from recovery of fiber to the chemical modification and preparation for the production of yarn.

Tanja Karila gave an overview of how Infinited Fiber is turning textile waste into new fibers. Patented technology turns post-consumer textile waste into brand new premium quality fibers for the textile industry. The textile-to-textile recycling technology captures the value in waste that would otherwise be landfilled or burned.

The ReHubs initiative brings together key European and world players to solve the European textile waste problem by transforming “waste” into a resource, and to boost textile circular business model at large scale.

This collaboration is set to turn the societal textile waste issue into a business opportunity and to fulfil the EU ambitions of the Green Deal, of the mandatory texile waste collection by end 2024 and the transition into Circular Economy.

In 2020 EURATEX launched the ReHubs initiative to promote collaboration across the extended textile value chain and considering all perspectives on chemicals, fibers making, textiles making, garments production, retail and distribution, textiles waste collection, sorting and recycling.

In June 2022 ReHubs completes a Techno Economic master Study (TES) which researches critical information on the feedstock (textile waste) data, on technology, organizational and financial needs to recycle 2.5 million tons of textile waste by 2030 and to effectively launch the ReHubs.

EURATEX’s ReHubs initiative plans to pursue fiber-to-fiber recycling for 2.5 million tons of textile waste by 2030
According ReHubs Techno Economic Master Study (TES), the textile recycling industry could generate in Europe around 15,000 direct new jobs by 2030, and increase need for nearshoring and reshoring of textile manufacturing.

The textile recycling industry in Europe could reach economic, social and environmental benefits for €3.5 billion to €4.5 billion by 2030
“Transform Waste into Feedstock” announced as first project supported by the ReHubs, and aiming at building up a first 50,000 tons capacity facility by 2024.

Europe has a 7-7.5 million tons textile waste problem, of which only 30-35% is collected today.  

Based on the ambitious European Waste law, all EU Member States must separately collect the textile waste in 2 years and half. While some countries are designing schemes to face the waste collection challenge, currently no large-scale plan exist to process the waste.

The largest source of textile waste (85%) comes from private households and approximately 99% of the textile waste was made using virgin fibers.

Euratex  assesses that to reach a fiber-to-fiber recycling rate of around 18 to 26 percent by 2030, a capital expenditure investment in the range of 6 billion € to 7 billion € will be needed, particularly to scale up sufficient sorting and processing infrastructure. The economic, social, and environmental value which could be realized, potentially total an annual impact of €3.5-4.5 billion by 2030.

Once matured and scaled, the textile recycling industry could become a profitable industry with a total market size of 6-8 billion € and around 15,000 direct new jobs by 2030.

Next steps of the ReHubs initiative

• A European textile recycling roadmap proposing Objectives and Key Results to recycle fiber-to-fiber 2.5 million of textile waste by 2030
• A leading collaboration hub with large players and SMEs from across an extended European textile recycling value chain
• A first concrete portfolio of 4 launching projects:
  - Transform textile waste into feedstock
  - Increase the adoption of mechanically recycled fibers in the value chain
  - Expand capacity by solving technical challenges for thermo-mechanical textiles recycling
  - Create capsule collection with post-consumer recycled products

The 1^st project addresses current sorting technologies which have limits to identify materials with sufficient accuracy for the subsequent circular recycling processes. The “Transform Waste into Feedstock” project will focus on further developing and scaling such sorting technologies. The project group led by Texaid AG aims on building up a first 50,000 tons facility by the end 2024.