From the Sector

• Lenzing becomes partner company of CISUTAC
• New project CISUTAC, co-funded by the EU, shall remove barriers to circularity in the textile industry
• Lenzing will make a contribution in cellulose recycling

The Lenzing Group, a leading provider of specialty fibers for the textile and nonwoven industries, is reinforcing its commitment to circularity by becoming a partner in the CISUTAC (Circular and Sustainable Textile and Clothing) project that is co-funded by the EU. The new consortium was established to support the transition to a circular and sustainable textile sector and, as well as Lenzing, the 27 consortium members include the industry association Euratex, textile company Inditex, PVH, Decathlon and non-governmental organization Oxfam. For its part, Lenzing is focusing on the development of recycling processes for cellulose.
 
CISUTAC aims to remove current bottlenecks in order to enhance textile circularity in Europe. Its goal is to minimize the sector’s total environmental impact by developing sustainable, novel and inclusive large-scale European value chains.

and textile technology company Infinited Fiber Company’s work to build the world’s first commercial-scale Infinna™ textile fiber factory in Kemi, Finland, has progressed largely according to plan since the announcement of the factory site in June 2022. The company is increasing its focus on scaling Infinna™ production volume further as quickly as possible. This is in response to the continued and growing customer demand for the company’s high-quality regenerated textile fiber Infinna™. The market impacts of the ongoing war in Ukraine – including the increased uncertainty on the global utility, commodity and financial markets – have highlighted the need to proceed rapidly with technology scaling on multiple fronts.
 
“We are not immune to the global market context in which we operate. The supply chain issues stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic are still wreaking havoc, and the ongoing war in Ukraine has dealt a heavy blow to the global utility, commodity, and financial markets – and to us. We are satisfied with the progress at the site of our planned commercial-scale factory and the opening of the factory remains our key priority. The current, unstable market environment has highlighted the need for us to also accelerate efforts to simultaneously pursue other avenues for scaling production, with the ultimate aim of serving our customers in the best possible way in the long run,” said Infinited Fiber Company CEO and cofounder Petri Alava.
 
Infinited Fiber Company said in June that it planned to build a factory to produce Infinna™, a textile fiber that can be created 100% from cotton-rich textile waste, at the site of a discontinued paper mill in Kemi, Finland. The factory is expected to create around 270 jobs in the area and to have an annual production capacity of 30,000 metric tons, equivalent to the fiber needed for about 100 million T-shirts. The future factory’s customer-base includes several of the world’s leading apparel companies, with most of the future production capacity already sold out for several years.
 
Since June, Infinited Fiber Company has advanced the site-specific basic engineering, recruitment planning, vendor selection, and permit processes according to plan. The limited component availability caused by the continuing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have, however, prolonged significantly the delivery times for some of the key equipment and machinery needed for the factory. As a result of these developments, Infinited Fiber Company has re-evaluated its overall factory project timeline. The first commercial fiber deliveries from Kemi are now expected to begin in January 2026. The scope of the project remains unchanged and construction work at the site is expected begin during 2023 as previously communicated.
 
In addition, the European energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine has caused the electricity prices in Finland to roughly triple, and the prices of some of the key chemicals needed in the fiber regeneration process have risen by some 200-300% since the start of the war.
 
“We of course don’t have a crystal ball. But according to our advisors and other experts, utility and commodity prices are forecast to normalize before 2026, when we now expect the first commercial fiber deliveries from Kemi to be shipped. In addition to the likely normalization of the market, the extended timeline enables us to undertake the necessary measures to develop the profitability of the future factory. The growing demand for Infinna™, despite the general turbulence, is an encouraging and clear indication of the fashion industry’s commitment to circularity,” said Petri Alava.

• DiaperRecycle Wins RISE® Innovation Award for Technology that Transforms Used Diapers into Cat Litter

Product development and innovators in nonwovens & engineered materials gained expert insights on material science innovation and sustainability at the 12^th edition of RISE® — Research, Innovation & Science for Engineered Fabrics conference, organized by INDA, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, and The Nonwovens Institute, North Carolina State University, Sept. 27-28 at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC.

More than 20 industry, academic, and government experts from across the globe presented technical developments in sessions focused on circularity and sustainable inputs from such sources as Polylactic Acid Polymers (PLA), natural fibers, biofibers, and waste products.

Highlights included presentations on Achieving Supply Chain Circularity, by Kat Knauer, Ph.D., Program Manager – V Research, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL; The Global Plastic Crisis: Winners/Losers in the Marketplace, by Bryan Haynes, Ph.D., Senior Technical Director, Global Nonwovens, Kimberly-Clark Corporation; Sustainable Fibers – Development and the Future by Jason Locklin, Ph.D. Director, University of Georgia – New Materials Institute; PLA & PLA Blends: Practical Aspects of Extrusion by Behnam Pourdeyhimi, Ph.D., William A. Klopman Distinguished Professor, and Executive Director, The Nonwovens Institute, North Carolina State University; and Mitigation of Quat Incompatibility with Cotton and other Cellulosic-based Substrates, by Doug Hinchliffe, Ph.D., Research Molecular Biologist, USDA-ARS.

RISE® Innovation Award Winner
DiaperRecycle was awarded the RISE® Innovation Award for its innovative technology to recycle used diapers into absorbent and flushable cat litter. The annual award recognizes innovation in areas within and on the periphery of the nonwovens industry that use advanced science and engineering principles to develop unique or intricate solutions to problems and advance  nonwovens usage.

By diverting used diapers from households and institutions, and separating the plastic and fiber, DiaperRecycle strives to decrease the climate-changing emissions of diapers from landfills.  “I am thrilled and grateful to win this award — as it proves we are on the right track,” said Cynthia Wallis Barnicoat, CEO of DiaperRecycle.

Other award finalists included Binder BioHook® by Gottlieb Binder GmbH & Co. KG and Sero® hemp fibers from Bast Fibre Technologies, Inc. (BFT).

The 13^th edition of RISE® — Research, Innovation & Science for Engineered Fabrics conference will be held Sept. 12-13, 2023 at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC.

The garment is part of the New Cotton Project, an EU Consortium of key players united to demonstrate the potential of circular garment production
adidas by Stella McCartney presented a first of its kind sportswear garment designed to demonstrate the potential of a circular fashion ecosystem. Joining forces with leading names and innovators in the fashion industry to create, test, and innovate, the tracksuit forms the pinnacle expression of the brand’s pilot circularity program, Made to Be Remade. A take-back scheme where consumers can wear it down and then return it by scanning a QR code via the product so it can be remade. Moving adidas closer to its goal to help end plastic waste.

It’s currently estimated that just under 1% of all textiles worldwide are recycled into new textiles, so it’s vital the textile industry comes together to learn and knowledge-share. Scheduled across a three-year period, the consortium which includes partners such as Frankenhuis have collected and sorted post-consumer end-of-life textiles, which using pioneering Infinited Fiber technology have been regenerated into a new man-made cellulosic fiber called Infinna™ - which looks and feels just like virgin cotton. This is then turned into a yarn blended with organic cotton, for garment production.

Designing the tracksuit, made using viscose (60% viscose, 40% organic cotton) as a consortium member took the process from a linear to a circular model , as the apparel’s function and style were of equal focus to the garment’s end of life existence.

At the end of the project, consortium partner Aalto University, a Finnish multidisciplinary community specialising in science, art, technology , and design, will distribute learnings with the industry and bring this potential circular design solution to the ever-eco-conscious consumer.

• Focus on Rethinking, Reusing and Recycling Nonwovens this September
• Industry Experts Present Material Science Innovations & Sustainability

More than 20 industry experts will present their views on how material science innovations can create a more sustainable future for the nonwovens industry at the Research, Innovation & Science for Engineered Fabrics (RISE®) Conference, Sept. 27-28 in Raleigh, at North Carolina State University, co-organized by INDA and The Nonwovens Institute at North Carolina State University.

Starting with responsible sourcing of nonwoven inputs to developing realistic end-of-life options and circularity opportunities, RISE will focus on rethinking, reusing and recycling nonwovens and engineered materials at the Talley Student Union in Raleigh.    

Participants will learn what’s coming next with sessions on the following six themes: Towards a More Circular Industry; Advancement in Sustainable Inputs; Development in Natural Fibers; Sustainable Inputs: Fibers and Biofibers; Waste Not, Want Not, Sustainable Inputs from Waste Products; and Economic Insights and Market Intelligence.

The 12th edition of RISE® will bring together thought leaders in product development, materials science, and new technologies to connect and convene for the industry’s premier nonwovens science and technology conference.

Expert speakers will address the latest trends and innovations around circularity – an important component of sustainability strategies that aims to return a product into the supply chain, instead of the landfill, after users are done consuming it.

RISE® session highlights include:

• The Global Plastic Crisis: Who Will Be the Winners/Losers in The Marketplace?
  Bryan Haynes, Ph.D., Senior Technical Director, Global Nonwovens, Kimberly-Clark Corporation
• Sustainable Fibers – Developments and the Future
  Jason Locklin, Ph.D., Director, University of Georgia, New Materials Institute and David Grewell, Ph.D., Center Director, Center for Bioplastics and Biocomposites
• Thinking Differently: In a Changing World What’s Next for NatureWorks and Polylactic Acid Polymers (PLA)
  Liz Johnson, Ph.D., Vice President of Technology, NatureWorks LLC
• PLA and PLA Blends: Practical Aspects of Extrusion
  Behnam Pourdeyhimi, Ph.D., William A. Klopman Distinguished Professor and Executive Director, The Nonwovens Institute, North Carolina State University
• Hemp is Strong – Are You?
  Olaf Isele, Strategic Product Development Director, Trace Femcare, Inc.
• Exploring Natural Fibers in Nonwovens
  Paul Latten, Director of Research and Development & New Business, Southeast Nonwovens, Inc.
• Potential Nonwoven Applications of Tree-Free Fibers Made from Microbial Cellulose –
  Heidi Beatty, Chief Executive Officer, Crown Abbey, LLC
• Ultra Fine Fibers Made from Recycled Materials
  Takashi Owada, General Manager, Teijin Frontier (U.S.A.), Inc.

The event also will feature the presentation of the RISE® Innovation Award, a special opportunity to tour the Nonwovens Institute’s state-of-the-art facilities with advance registration required, and poster presentations by North Carolina State University graduate students.

Today’s system of «take – make – waste» needs to change. New textiles are produced used and discarded instead of putting them to a second use. The production of new textiles requires natural resources that are limited, and the current system has a significant negative impact on our planet. The transition to a circular system, where garments are kept in use for longer, is an opportunity to harness untapped potential around customer loyalty, economic growth, and ecological sustainability.

To move away from the linear system and enable products to be made out of post-consumer textile waste, TEXAID continues to expand its offering for in-store collection programs throughout Europe and the USA.

TEXAID is partnering with Mustang to offer an in-store collection program. At scale and paired with TEXAID, in-store collection of used clothing enables conservation of resources because it allows items to be directly sorted for their next and most environmentally friendly lifecycle. This service can now be found in over 70 Mustang stores across Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Poland.

Carbios has signed an agreement with On, Patagonia, PUMA, and Salomon, to develop solutions that will enhance the recyclability and circularity of their products.
 
An important element of the two-year deal will be to speed up the introduction of Carbios’ biorecycling technology, which constitutes a breakthrough for the textile industry. Carbios and the four companies will also research how products can be recycled, develop solutions to take-back worn polyester items, including sorting and dismantling technologies, and gather data on fiber-to-fiber recycling as well as circularity models.
 
The challenge the four brands share, is that their ambitious sustainable development goals can only partially be met by conventional recycling technologies which mostly target bottle-to-fiber recycling. Future regulations will require more circularity in packaging and textile. Yet the market consensus is that there will soon be a shortage of PET bottles, as they will be used for circular production methods in the Food & Beverage Industry.   
 
Carbios’ innovative process constitutes a technological breakthrough for the recycling of polyester (PET) fibers, which are widely used in apparel, footwear and sportswear, on their own or together with other fibers. PET polyester is the most important fiber for the textile industry with 52 MT produced, even surpassing cotton at 23MT. The biorecycling process uses an enzyme capable of selectively extracting the polyester, recovering it to recreate a virgin fiber. This revolutionary technology makes it possible to recover the PET polyester present in all textile waste that cannot be recycled using traditional technologies.
 
PET plastics and fibers are used to make everyday consumer goods such as bottles, packaging and textiles. Today, most PET is produced from fossil resources, then used and discarded according to a wasteful linear model. By creating a circular economy from used plastics and fibers, Carbios’ biorecycling technology offers a sustainable and more responsible solution.

• Bluesign announces partnership with SCTI

Bluesign has teamed up with Sustainable Chemistry for the Textile Industry (SCTI^TM) to develop a sustainable chemistry index that shall provide a standard communication guide for chemical suppliers, manufacturers, brands, and NGOs.

The first-of-its-kind index is intended to inspire change in the industry by making it easier for stakeholders to assess the sustainability of textile chemical products against the highest standards while safeguarding the intellectual property (IP) of participating chemical companies. IP protection is critical to ensuring ongoing investment in sustainable solutions.

Chemical products, such as dyes and textile auxiliaries, are often characterized with the attribute of “free of a certain substance”. Rather than prioritizing ingredients only, the bluesign^® SYSTEM already goes beyond this. The chemicals and the production site where they were created must meet certain criteria regarding environmental performance, occupational health and safety, and product stewardship performance to be bluesign^® APPROVED.

The sustainable chemistry index will be reserved for substances that offer transparency on a number of additional indicators including the chemical’s circularity viability, greenhouse gas emissions during production, and the source of the raw materials. The sustainable chemistry index will also require that the downstream use of the chemical is optimized, meaning, for example, that it promotes resource saving in textile finishing. Additionally, excellent corporate governance paired with well-defined environmental and social (ESG) goals will be a pre-condition.

SCTI^TM is an alliance of leading chemical companies that strives to empower the textile and leather industries to apply sustainable, state-of-the-art chemistry solutions that protect factory workers, local communities, consumers and the environment.

Bluesign will implement and manage the sustainable chemistry index as an independent authority with a holistic approach to helping companies throughout the textile supply chain improve their sustainability performance.

At Heimtextil Frankfurt 2022, Devan, will launch novel technologies to the Home Textiles market. The first innovation is a range of bio-based and biodegradable microcapsules. With increased sustainability and circularity requirements in Europe and beyond, Devan is pushing the limits further of its encapsulation methods, also in terms of wash durability. The capsules are biodegradable and hence no harm for risk of microplastics. The new R-Vital NTL range includes evergreen Aloe Vera, waste-material based avocado seed oil with very high hydration abilities! and Vitamine E.

Devan, as part of the Pulcra Chemicals Group, co-launches the new Pulcra TEC-SU, a new biobased C0 DWR. This hydrophobic agent has a bio-content above 60% and contains no APEO or formaldehyde. It keeps performing very good after multiple washings.

The Devan bio-based thermoregulation range, like Tones of Cool Bio which is already several years on the market, is having a positive effect on carbon footprint. Devan is now expanding its cooling range with a specific foam-solution. In the Home Textile industry new (bio)foam types are introduced the last 1,5 years to comply with the EU GreenDeal and circularity / recycling requirements. A good enough reason for Devan to develop a foam-specific cooling system. After all, research shows that our bedroom interiors get warmer every year, partly due to better insulation but also due to global warming. On top of that Devan thermoregulation solutions can save Energy and Water during application: low curing solutions are available next to cooling products to that can be applied, using less water.

SOEX, der größte Textilabfallsammler in Deutschland, schließt sich mit dem niederländischen Unternehmen Circularity B.V. zusammen, um 100% kreislauffähige Produkte herzustellen. Ge-meinsam wollen die Unternehmen ein Return-after-use-System anbieten, das sowohl für Mode als auch für industrielle Arbeitskleidung geeignet ist.

Ziel ist es, ein auf mechanischem Recycling basierendes Produktionssystem einzuführen, das keine Zugabe von neuen Rohstoffen erfordert. Das Endprodukt werden 100% zirkuläre T-, Polo- und Sweatshirts sein, die aus Abfällen und Lagerbeständen hergestellt werden. Während des gesamten Prozesses verfolgt das Projekt einen ganzheitlichen Ansatz, der von Textilien aus Post-Consumer-Abfällen über recycelte Garne bis hin zum fertigen T-Shirt reicht.

In einem ersten Schritt wird SOEX das Ausgangsmaterial für die niederländische Anlage bereit-stellen, die Sekundärrohstoffe werden in einem Rundstrickverfahren zu neuen Kleidungsstücken verarbeitet. Nachdem das System in den Niederlanden in Betrieb ist, will SOEX einen Versuch mit einem Duplikat in seinem deutschen Werk in Wolfen-Bitterfeld starten. Bis Ende des Jahres will das Duo die ersten Schritte seiner neuen Zusammenarbeit umgesetzt haben.

SOEX und Circularity B.V. haben die gemeinsame Mission, eine nachhaltige Lösung für einen zirkulären Textilmarkt aktiv zu gestalten, indem sie große Mengen von Baumwolle und Wasser einsparen. Die Zusammenarbeit hat das Potenzial, Unternehmen darin zu unterstützen, ihrer erweiterten Herstellerverantwortung gerecht zu werden, insbesondere im Hinblick auf die kommenden strengeren EU-Gesetzgebungen, die ab 2025 und in den Niederlanden schon eher eine stärkere Beteiligung von Herstellern und Marken verlangen.