From the Sector

Sächsisches Textilforschungsinstitut e.V. (STFI) has been supporting companies in developing marketable innovations for over 30 years. With a clear focus on sustainability, the environment, health and protection, the STFI offers future-oriented research, textile testing for tailor-made solutions and certification of personal protective equipment. At Techtextil 2026, the institute will present ideas for the textile circular economy and showcase solutions for healthy and safe living.  

Highlights at Techtextil 2026: 
Sound booth – an oasis of calm amid the hustle and bustle of the trade fair 
Chemical recycling of mixed textile fractions produces textile residues that are currently not used as raw materials but are thermally recycled or disposed of. To enable further recycling, STFI is working with Refresh Global to investigate efficient treatment and processing methods for reusing these textile residues. These can be used in sound-absorbing design products, such as acoustic walls or furniture. Nonwoven forming processes are particularly suitable for processing these textile residues. At STFI, the recyclates are mechanically processed on pilot plants on a laboratory or semi-industrial scale before being laid into a non-woven fabric and consolidated. Through appropriate finishing, a visually matching top layer can also be integrated directly onto the nonwoven fabric. The finished nonwoven fabrics are processed into sound-absorbing design products by the project's industrial partner. 
 
Sports belt based on modulated medium frequencies for mobile applications for postnatal muscle building of the deep abdominal and pelvic floor muscles 
A team of companies and research institutions has developed a novel smart textile for stimulating and strengthening the deep abdominal and pelvic floor muscles using modulated medium frequencies (EMA), specifically for mobile use during and after childbirth. To this end, a textile belt was designed using knitting technology that covers the abdomen, thighs and buttocks and integrates electrodes at the relevant muscle zones. The electrodes are washable and fixed in the belt system, and the belt adapts to the user's decreasing body circumference thanks to its textile construction. The miniaturised, battery-powered control unit is attached to the belt and can be operated via a removable remote control. The system is easy to put on, comfortable, intuitive to use and does not restrict freedom of movement. This makes it particularly suitable for home use and everyday postnatal recovery.  
 
Protective trousers protect against stab and cut injuries and attacks by wild boar. 
In forestry and hunting in particular, workers are exposed to high risks of impact injuries resulting from attacks by wild boar. Conventional protective clothing often only offers protection against stab or cut injuries. The STFI has therefore developed a textile concept that adds impact protection to the existing level of protection, thus increasing the overall protection of users in practical working environments. In  tests, the impact of a blow was reduced by up to 20 per cent. We present an example of trousers in which the special impact protection fabric has been incorporated. Depending on requirements, the impact protection elements can also be designed to be recyclable. Specially woven hinges also increase the comfort of the work trousers.  

MC4 – Optimising recycling cycles for carbon and glass fibre composites 
High-performance fibre materials made of carbon and glass have a significant ecological footprint, and not just because of their energy-intensive production. High waste volumes in the manufacturing process and the reuse of raw materials at the end of the product life cycle offer enormous recycling potential for the future. MC4 (Multi-level Circular Process Chain for Carbon and Glass Fibre Composites) is a European project to promote circular approaches for carbon and glass fibre composites. These materials are indispensable in many technical applications due to their light weight and high mechanical properties. The project consortium is working until March 2025 to make the European value chains for carbon and glass fibres more ecologically and economically efficient and will present the development work carried out at the STFI stand as well as at its own stand and show what is technically feasible using selected demonstrators. 

Stratasys Ltd. has earned a Gold Medal from EcoVadis for sustainability, placing the company in the top 5% of 150,000 organizations evaluated globally, improving its status from last year’s Silver rating. Being at the highest level of ESG performance helps strengthen our value proposition to customers and their sustainable goals.

EcoVadis is a leading provider of business sustainability ratings, evaluating companies across four key areas: environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement.

“Through our Mindful Manufacturing™ commitment, we’re building the evidence-based, data-driven responsible business practices that our customers and strategic stakeholders increasingly expect from a future-ready manufacturing partner,” said Rosa Coblens, Vice President, Sustainability and Communications, Stratasys. “Earning the EcoVadis Gold Medal and ranking in the top 5% globally is an important recognition of the hard and dedicated work our global teams have done to strengthen sustainability infrastructures across the company.”

Stratasys’ improved rating reflects sustainability excellence, maturity of management systems, and continued progress across enterprise sustainability practices, including reporting emissions across the value chain (Scope 3), increased supplier engagement on ESG, ongoing research on product environmental impacts through Life Cycle Analyses (LCAs), and third party limited assurance processes for carbon reporting.
As a leading 3D printing business partner for future-ready manufacturing enterprises, Stratasys helps customers scale production of parts while supporting more efficient, optimized, and responsible manufacturing.

Reju, the textile-to-textile regeneration company based in France, announces the site selection for an industrial sized Regeneration Hub, in Lacq, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, on the Induslacq platform. Reju, a Technip Energies owned company, is deepening its roots in France through the development of this new Regeneration Hub. 

Every year, 121 million tonnes of textiles are discarded, yet only 1% are recycled into new garments. The vast majority end up in landfills or are incinerated, creating a severe environmental challenge for the world. Reju is tackling this global issue by developing solutions to regenerate textile waste into new materials. 

This Regeneration Hub will strengthen France’s leadership in circular, low carbon industrial innovation. Backed by Technip Energies’ global engineering expertise, Reju will bring cutting edge textile to textile regeneration technology to French industry. The plant will utilize Reju’s proprietary depolymerization technology to take post-consumer textiles from national waste streams as feedstock and to transform them into rBHET, a regenerated raw material for making new polyester from textile waste, that will then be repolymerized into Reju PET. 

The project is subject to final investment decision by the board of Technip Energies, the parent company of Reju. 

This project will help structure a new local industry, contributing to decarbonization. It would generate 80 direct jobs and more than 300 indirect jobs. “This French Regeneration Hub builds on our strategy to industrialize a circular post-consumer textile-to-textile model,” said Patrik Frisk, CEO of Reju. “By leveraging France’s ambitious circular-economy agenda and advancing our technology to new markets, we are reinforcing our mission to transform textile waste into valuable, circular resources.” 

Through its French Hub, Reju aims to build a scalable circular infrastructure in France and Europe, enabling textile-to-textile traceability and closing the loop on fiber use. The project aligns with Reju’s established operations, including Regeneration Hub Zero in Frankfurt, the announced site selection in Chemelot, Sittard-Geleen the Netherlands and the recently announced United States Hub to be located in Eastman Business Park, in Rochester, New York. 

The Regeneration Hub will be located on the Induslacq platform, owned by TotalEnergies. 

Owned by Technip Energies, Reju utilizes proprietary technology developed in conjunction with IBM Research to recover, regenerate and recirculate textile waste, starting with polyester. 
Reju actively participates in the work of several bodies and organizations such as ReHubs, Petcore and Evolen. This will create a circular ecosystem, developing a textile-to-textile sector in France in line with European requirements and based on traceability.

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

ECHA Forum’s pilot enforcement project found that 19 % of the checked hazardous mixtures were not notified to poison centres.

Inspectors in 18 EU/EEA countries checked nearly 1 597 mixtures to verify whether industry complies with the obligation to notify hazardous mixtures to national poison centres. This is regulated under the EU’s Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation. These notifications are crucial for poison centres to provide an adequate medical response in case of exposure to hazardous mixtures. Of all checked mixtures, 19 % were not notified to the authorities. 

Chris Van den hole, the Working Group Chair of this pilot project said: 
“Missing notifications of the necessary information to the poison centres undermine the effectiveness of emergency response. Therefore, inspectors take these findings very seriously and initiated numerous enforcement actions to bring companies to compliance.
“To improve the situation, we have listed recommendations for market actors, authorities and consumers in our report.”

The pilot project also aimed to raise the duty holders’ awareness of their legal obligations, for example, to place the Unique Formula Identifier (UFI) on the label of their products. The 16-digit, alphanumerical UFI code is a vital tool used by the poison centres to rapidly identify a mixture following an accidental poisoning. In 15 % of inspected mixtures, the required UFI was missing from the product label. 

Enforcement actions
Where non-compliance was detected, written advice was the most common enforcement measure applied by inspectors, followed by verbal advice, administrative orders, fines, and even criminal complaints. A number of cases were still under follow-up phase at time of reporting.

Background
According to the CLP Regulation, companies placing hazardous mixtures on the market are obliged to provide information about the composition of those mixtures to the appointed bodies. These bodies make this information available to poison centres so that they can give advice to the citizens or medical personnel in the event of an emergency. The duty to notify applies to mixtures that are classified for human health or physical hazards. For example, mixtures that are corrosive to skin, can cause eye damage or those that are explosive.

The names of companies that placed the controlled mixtures on the market and the products’ brand names were not reported for this project. The main purpose of the project was to harmonise and strengthen the national enforcement at the EU level.

• 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).

Indorama Ventures, a global sustainable chemical company, takes an important next step toward making textiles more circular for homes and public spaces. To support fabric makers in creating a more sustainable version of the well-known flame-retardant Trevira CS fabric, the company now offers Trevira® flame-retardant fibers and filament yarns that contain 50% recycled textile material. First customers were introduced to the new offering during Heimtextil trade show mid-January in Frankfurt, Germany. 

Jesper Nielsen, Global Key Account Manager Flame Retardancy, explains: “This innovation is possible through Indorama Ventures’ joint venture with Jiaren Chemical Recycling. The renowned recycler uses textile waste from both, consumers and industry, to produce recycled polyester chips. From these chips, we make our high-modified Trevira® flame-retardant fibers and yarns. Customers who use these fibers and yarns to produce fabrics can then apply for the Trevira CS Eco brand. This way, they combine their commitment to circularity with the strong, permanent flame-retardant performance the Trevira CS fabric brand is known for since 1980.” 

Indorama Ventures announced its partnership with Jiaren Chemical Recycling in November 2025. This strategic move reflects the company’s ambition to play a leading role in making textile circularity a reality at scale. The newly available textile-recycled Trevira® flame-retardant fibers and yarns are one outcome of this partnership, which will create more resource-friendly textiles without compromising on comfort or safety.

Beaulieu Fibres has been awarded the EcoVadis Platinum Medal, placing the company among the top 1% of more than 130.000 companies assessed worldwide.

This is the highest possible recognition granted by EcoVadis and confirms Beaulieu Fibres’ strong performance across environmental management, labor & human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement.

EcoVadis is a globally recognized, independent sustainability assessment platform that evaluates companies based on verified actions rather than stated intentions. The Platinum rating provides customers with third-party validation that Beaulieu Fibres operates responsibly, transparently, and with a continuous focus on reducing environmental impact and strengthening supply-chain practices.

For customers in the disposable and durable nonwoven technical textile markets, this recognition reinforces Beaulieu Fibres’ role as a reliable, future-ready business partner, capable of supporting growing requirements in sustainability, compliance, performance, and operational efficiency.

The EcoVadis Platinum rating aligns closely with Beaulieu Fibres’ long-term ambition to become the preferred partner for innovative and sustainable fibre solutions and to act as “the most complete fibre expert” in the market. The company aims to empower customers to exceed limits - whether in product performance, sustainability objectives, or manufacturing efficiency.

Conventional sports textiles made from petroleum-based synthetic fibres are to be replaced in the future by sustainable, bio-based, cooling textiles. Polyethylene, previously used mainly in the packaging industry, is thus qualified for use in textiles and, as a bio-based drop-in solution, offers a cost-effective, sustainable alternative for the future.

TECNARO (Ilsfeld/Germany), BB Engineering (Remscheid/Germany), FALKE (Schmallenberg/Germany) and the Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) of RWTH Aachen University have developed textiles from bio-based polyethylene (bioPE) in the bioPEtex project of the BIOTEXFUTURE Innovation Space.

TECNARO develops the bio-based PE compounds and handles their dyeing. ITA is concentrating on the process development for melt spinning (partially-oriented yarn, POY) and false-twist texturing (draw-textured yarn, DTY) of the bioPE yarns. BB Engineering implements the false-twist texturing on an industrial scale, and FALKE is developing the final T-shirt, which will be treated with a bio-based finish for improved elasticity.

The successful creation of a first T-shirt from the yarns developed in this project underscores their promising characteristics. This represents a key milestone and forms the basis for investigating potential market readiness in subsequent phases. Above all, the white BioPE T-shirt impresses with its pleasantly cool and soft touch. However, additional development, characterisation, and optimisation steps are necessary to make a market introduction possible.

Ontex Group NV (Euronext: ONTEX), a leading international developer and producer of personal care solutions, has received an ‘A’ rating for the second year in a row from CDP, the global environmental non-profit, for its leadership in corporate transparency and performance on climate change.

In its 2025 CDP Climate Change assessment, Ontex received strong scores across key management and transparency categories, including governance, business strategy and value chain engagement.  The assessment also highlights the clear priorities for the next phase of Ontex’s climate journey, including scaling energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions, strengthening emissions reduction initiatives and further embedding climate considerations into financial decision-making.

In 2025, Ontex further strengthened its climate performance through a number of concrete actions, including:

• Achieving 100% renewable electricity across its operations;
• Further embedding carbon transparency into product innovation, by expanding the use of its product sustainability scorecard to guide innovation and design decisions;
• Deepening supplier collaboration on climate data, working directly with suppliers to obtain primary emissions factors and improve the accuracy of Scope 3 carbon reporting.

Annick De Poorter, Chief Innovation & Sustainability Officer, said: “We are proud to earn a CDP ‘A’ rating again. It reflects the robustness of Ontex’s climate governance and the integration of climate-related risks and opportunities into strategic decision-making. Especially, since the sustainability landscape is shifting—while some reporting rules are easing, demands for transparency and proof of progress are rising. These challenges push us to keep raising the bar, working openly and together to drive real change across our value chain. That’s how we are ‘Here for you. Here for the better.’