From the Sector

On the sidelines of the Intertextile Shanghai fair, the Swedish textile-to-textile recycling innovator Renewcell and the leading Chinese viscose manufacturer Tangshan Sanyou announced the next step in their partnership to make fashion circular that stretches back to 2018.

The two companies’ new shared ambition is to offer manufacturers and brands Circulose® viscose fibers made from 100% recycled textiles in commercial quantities starting in 2024. The collaboration has been facilitated by Ekman Group, Renewcell’s exclusive global trading partner.

“I am very happy to announce this acceleration of our long-standing partnership with Tangshan Sanyou. They were the first commercial producer of Circulose®-based fibers in the world, and the first to commit to sourcing significant volumes from us. Now, they aim to also be the first to commercialize 100% Circulose® content fibers” said Patrik Lundström, CEO of Renewcell, adding "I applaud Tangshan Sanyou’s vision and support to scaling next gen raw materials like Circulose®.”

The announcement, which follows the recent start of deliveries of 100% recycled textile Circulose® pulp from Renewcell’s newly opened Renewcell 1 recycling plant, is the result of successful validation of Circulose®’s quality in production at Tangshan Sanyou’s commercial-scale manufacturing lines. Tangshan Sanyou would strive to finish the mission of producing commercial volumes of 50% Circulose® content fibers during 2023 and work towards achieving the delivery of 100% Circulose® content branded viscose fibers to selected fashion brands and manufacturers starting in 2024. The two companies will cooperate to market the fibers globally using Renewcell’s Circulose® ingredient brand name.

Mr. Zhang Dongbin, Executive Vice General Manager of Tangshan Sanyou Chemical Fiber, says, "Through the collaboration with Renewcell, we have achieved to use Circulose® made from recycled cotton in the production of our viscose fibers, which is great beneficial to improving resource utilization efficiency and lowering carbon footprint of the industry. It has brought a huge impact in the sustainable fashion industry. We will continue putting efforts in forming good interaction between consumers, brands and enterprises, convey the concept of circular sustainable fashion, promote the greening of textile industry, and ensure a more sustainable way to ensure the sustainable development of the textile industry. Protecting the global ecological environment by applying sustainable solutions is our common goal."

The Organic Cotton & Textiles Conference, taking place in Indore, India over three days, from February 27-March 1^st is set to bring together a diverse group of key players from every part of the textile supply chain. Farmers, farm groups, industry representatives, non-profits, academics, suppliers, brands, certifiers, government representatives and policymakers will join nearly 200 guests at the multi-day event. The aim is to foster collaboration, explore innovative ideas, listen to those on the ground and focus discussions to develop a shared vision to boost the organic textile supply chain worldwide.

Co-hosted by  OCA, GOTS, and IFOAM - Organics International, the conference will address a range of subjects including social conditions, transparency through innovation, scaling up organic through investment, as well as sessions tackling certification, decent work and environmental impacts. The event also gives voice to farmers, who join as panellists, in a dedicated Q&A session with seven organic cotton farmers from the region. On the third day, organised by OCA, the organic farmers will welcome attendees to their communities during field trips west to Petlawad to witness organic practices at ground level.

“By addressing these important issues and fostering a dialogue between participants, the conference aims to develop innovative solutions that can drive progress and growth in the sector", says Bart Vollaard, Executive Director of OCA. "We are thrilled to be joining forces with GOTS and IFOAM to create positive change in the organic textile sector."

“Together with IFOAM - Organics International and OCA, GOTS wants to increase visibility of organic and at the same time enhance integrity of organic fibres and textiles. This conference shall serve to strengthen the sector by addressing obstacles and work on effective solutions, in consultation with all relevant and committed stakeholders”, notes Claudia Kersten, Managing Director of GOTS.

Sarah Compson of the IFOAM - Organics International World Board adds “Organic agriculture directly addresses some of the most pressing challenges of our time. IFOAM - Organics International is delighted to collaborate with OCA and GOTS to bring together people from across the whole textile sector and address the barriers and opportunities for scaling organic cotton production worldwide.”

With a strong line-up of notable speakers and guests in a supportive and engaging atmosphere, and a unique approach that connects participants from every step of the supply chain, the Organic Cotton & Textiles Conference is set to be a valuable and transformative event for key stakeholders involved in the organic textile industry.

BTMA member Dent Instrumentation – a specialist in contactless yarn sensors – has become an employee-owned business following the formation of a new Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).

The company, based in Colne, Lancashire, has been family owned since its founder Geoffrey Dent secured a patent for the very first contactless yarn sensor in the 1960s. It has been successfully run by his son Andrew and the family for many years.
“This deal ensures a smooth succession as well as the preservation of the company’s core family values and the Dent Instrumentation name,” said Managing Director Colin Hull. “The EOT structure will maintain the integrity of the business for years to come.”

The liability of Dent sensors makes them integral to the yarn spinning and winding processes and they have become a standard throughout the textile industry, recognised for their quality, performance and value. They are used by major manufacturers of textiles and textile machinery under either Dent or OEM machine builder brands.

Freudenberg Performance Materials Apparel (Freudenberg) as a leading specialist in woven, knitted and non-woven interlinings and thermal insulation, presents sustainable solutions for sportswear and related product segments of all kinds in Munich.

Trade show visitors will experience a wide range of innovative and sustainable interlinings for active sports outfits, stretch interlinings for yoga wear, Pilates & Co, and thermal insulations that combine perfect outdoor wearing comfort with high warmth retention. With comfortemp® brand thermal insulations and the Active Range, Freudenberg presents a complete package for outdoor and sportswear for winter sports: thermal insulations, interlinings, tapes, lining fabrics and adhesive solutions.

The independent jury has nominated the 100 percent biodegradable thermal insulation comfortemp® nature Lyocell HO 60x, made from Lyocell regenerated fibers, for the Textrends Award fall/winter 2024/25 season. The award is given exclusively to innovative products that are groundbreaking for the development of the textile industry. comfortemp® nature Lyocell HO 60x has a variety of extraordinary performance characteristics as a high warmth retention, bacteria inhibiting and fast drying, furthermore water repellent. High wearing comfort and the assurance of a perfect moisture balance characterize the volume fleece as ideal for the application in sportswear.

Freudenberg is presenting its entire European and global product portfolio from its "House of Sustainability" at ISPO. The "House of Sustainability" supports Freudenberg in minimizing its ecological footprint and maximizing its ecological handprint. For this purpose, the company's own manufacturing processes are designed to minimize the impact on the environment. In addition, products are developed to help customers produce more sustainably.

• 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.

• Aims to tackle the immense textile waste generated in urban environments, on the back of import bans of waste materials
• Addresses the shortcomings of current textile recycling technologies, which are unsuitable for urban settings due to the use of heavy chemicals
• Technologies developed by the newly-formed RGE-NTU Sustainable Textile Research Centre will be test-bedded in RGE’s pilot urban-fit textile recycling plant, projected for completion as early as 2024

Royal Golden Eagle (“RGE”), a global group of resource-based manufacturing companies, which includes a world-leading viscose fibre producers Sateri and Asia Pacific Rayon (APR), is developing urban-fit, closed-loop textile-to-textile recycling solutions, through the newly-formed RGE-NTU Sustainable Textile Research Centre (RGE-NTU SusTex). This is a five-year research collaboration between RGE and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (“NTU”), to accelerate innovation in textile recycling that can be deployed in urban settings. The research centre will develop new technologies to recycle textile waste into fibre and create new, next-generation eco-friendly and sustainable textiles.

This move comes on the back of the tightening of waste import bans in countries such as China, India and Indonesia, which are among the world’s largest waste processors. The stricter import bans have left cities in need of viable local textile recycling solutions to tackle the immense textile waste generated.

RGE Executive Director, Mr Perry Lim, said, “Current textile recycling technologies, which rely primarily on a bleaching and separation process using heavy chemicals, cannot be implemented due to environmental laws. At the same time, there is an urgent need to keep textiles out of the brimming landfills.” He added, “As the world’s largest viscose producer, we aim to catalyse closed-loop, textile-to-textile recycling by developing optimal urban-fit solutions that can bring the world closer to a circular textile economy.”

Globally, an estimated 90 million tonnes of textile waste is generated and disposed of every year, with less than 1% being upcycled into new clothing or other textile materials. By 2030, the amount of global textile waste, which currently accounts for almost 10% of municipal solid waste, is expected to reach more than 134 million tonnes. The textile industry is also responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions – more than international flights and maritime shipping combined.

At present, most of the available textile recycling technologies are open-loop, where textile waste is typically downcycled to lower-quality products (insulating materials, cleaning cloths, etc.) or be used in waste-to-heat recycling.

“Closed-loop textile-to-textile recycling processes, particularly chemical recycling, are still under development. Scaling up the technologies to industrial scale remains a challenge. A key bottleneck is that refabricating textile waste into fibre needs purity standards for feedstock. However, most of the clothes that we wear are made of a mixture of different synthetic and natural fibres, which makes separating the complex blends of materials challenging for effective recycling.

“Our aim is to address this industry pain point by developing viable solutions that use less energy, fewer chemicals and produces harmless and less effluents, and then potentially scale up across our global operations,” Mr Lim said.

To tackle the key challenges in closed-loop textile recycling, RGE-NTU SusTex is looking into four key research areas, namely cleaner and more energy efficient methods of recycling into new raw materials, automated sorting of textile waste, eco-friendly dye removal, and development of a new class of sustainable textiles that is durable for wear and, at the same time, lends itself to easier recycling.

Technologies developed by RGE-NTU SusTex will be test bedded at RGE’s pilot urban-fit textile recycling plant in Singapore, which is projected for completion as early as 2024. If successful, RGE has plans to replicate the plant in other urban cities within its footprint.

• Growing geographic separation between cotton production and textile manufacturing since the 1990s

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a comprehensive study about Chinese cotton in August 2022. The authors, Fred Gale and Eric Davis, concentrate on textiles, imports and Xinjiang.

China is the world’s largest textile manufacturer and the largest cotton consumer, but changes in China’s economy are reshaping the geography of its cotton-textile sector. Nearly all of China’s cotton is produced in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), also known more simply as Xinjiang.

Their study reviewed the regional patterns of China’s cotton textile industry development and identified growing geographic separation between cotton production and textile manufacturing since the 1990s using data from Chinese sources. The study investigated spatial patterns of demand for imported cotton by analyzing lists of Chinese companies applying for a share of the import quota from 2016 to 2022. Multiple regression analysis was used to control for potentially confounding influences when investigating whether companies in coastal provinces were more likely to use imported cotton than similarly sized companies in other regions.

Textile manufacturers — the main consumers of cotton — are concentrated in coastal and central regions where the share of China’s cotton production fell from over 50 percent to 10 percent during 2011–21. These geographic changes are a factor influencing global trade in cotton and textiles. Additionally, the use of forced labor in Xinjiang attracted more attention to the industry, prompting the United States and other countries to ban products produced in the region.

This study reviews the economic, geographic, and policy factors reshaping the industry and influencing the global trade of cotton and textile products. The study also examines data on Chinese companies applying for a share of China’s cotton import quota to gain insight about the demand for imported cotton.

China became the world’s largest producer, consumer, and importer of cotton soon after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. Despite adopting a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) system for cotton imports and issuing supplemental quotas in most years, the large number of cotton goods manufacturers that request shares of the quota suggests demand for imported cotton exceeds  the quota.

While the TRQ was intended to protect China’s cotton farmers, many farmers abandoned the labor-intensive crop as wages rose rapidly in many other industries and other crops produced higher returns. In response, officials encouraged cotton production in the relatively remote region of Xinjiang to prevent China from becoming reliant on imported cotton. Xinjiang growers receive a subsidy payment for cotton, and subsidies for machinery and seeds. A transportation subsidy induces textile manufacturers in eastern and central regions to purchase cotton from Xinjiang, which is about 2,200 to 2,900 miles from most of the country’s textile manufacturers. Financial support and other incentives encourage manufacturers to shift operations to Xinjiang.

Textile manufacturers in China are highly interested in importing cotton due to its lower price and quality. China imports about 20 percent of its cotton, and the United States is a chief exporter of cotton to China. While imported cotton is used in all provinces, manufacturers near the eastern seaboard show a greater propensity for imports. Nevertheless, in all regions, domestic cotton has the largest share of mill use.

Between 2016 and 2022, 1,581 companies applied for a share of the TRQ, and 265 companies applied in all 7 years. Most of these companies also applied for supplemental quotas issued with slightly higher tariffs. This large number of applicants suggests that imports could be even greater if quotas did not limit them. The operation of the quota application process is not public information, but data submitted by applicants suggests access to imported cotton is uneven. About 14 percent of applicants said imported cotton comprised over half of the cotton they used. Another 20 percent of companies requesting import quota did not use any imported cotton, suggesting that many applicants are unable to import. Textile manufacturers coped with limits on cotton imports by increasing their use of synthetic, chemical-based fibers or by importing cotton yarn. From 2000 to 2020, China’s yarn imports doubled from under 1 million metric tons to around 2 million metric tons with Vietnam supplying about 45 percent of that total in 2020.

The number of textile manufacturers in Xinjiang applying for a share of the cotton import quota rose from 37 to 68 between 2016 and 2022. However, imports constituted less than 2 percent of  the cotton Xinjiang applicants reported using—and 66 percent of them reported using no imported cotton—suggesting that applications from Xinjiang textile companies were often denied.
Analysis found that applicants in coastal provinces used more imported cotton than similarly sized applicants in other regions. Each location of a multi-plant company must apply separately for tariff-rate quotas. Textile manufacturers in Xinjiang that requested a share of the import quota included branches of some of China’s largest textile companies, but the analysis found that Xinjiang applicants used less imported cotton than similar manufacturing plants located in other regions. China’s role as a cotton importer appears to have peaked, while other countries are increasing their share of imports.

USDA baseline projections suggest that by 2030 Vietnam, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Turkey will together account for 47 percent of the world’s cotton imports while China will only account for 24 percent. The study cam be downloaded from the USDA website.

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.

The Aachen-Dresden-Denkendorf International Textile Conference 2022 as face-to-face event takes place on-site in Aachen on December 1-2, 2022.

There is the opportunity to contribute to the conference program and submit an abstract for a talk or poster presentation. The Call for Abstracts for oral presentations ends on May 6, 2022. The Call for Abstracts for poster contributions is open until July 31, 2022.

The ADD-ITC is a conference for experts from the fields of
·    Textile chemistry, finishing & functionalization
·    Synthetic Fibers & Materials
·    Machinery, Processes & Composites

The conference program includes plenary lectures and themed sessions in the areas of
·    Sustainability in the textile industry
·    Future of textile production
·    Textiles for medicine and health
·    Smart textiles & fashion
·    Historic textiles
·    Technology transfer (IGF-ZIM projects)
·    Textile developments by start-ups
 

Further information about the conference program, plenary and keynote speakers as well as the call for abstracts are online availabel.

• Innovation begins with creativity
• A pioneer of the manmade fiber industry

When the manmade fiber age began a century ago, a German company was responsible for the pioneering work involved. Barmag, established in 1922, was one of the world’s first companies to construct machines for the large-scale production of synthetic staple fibers. To this day, the leading manufacturer of manmade fiber spinning systems and texturing machines in Remscheid – a brand under the aegis of the Swiss Oerlikon Group since 2007 – has shaped technological progress in this sector; in future, with ever more innovations focusing on sustainability and digitalization.

Barmer Maschinenfabrik Aktiengesellschaft (Barmag) is founded in Barmen, located in the Bergische Land region, on March 27, 1922. The German and Dutch founders enter unchartered technological territory, one created as the result of a groundbreaking invention: in 1884, French chemist Count Hilaire Bernigaud de Chardonnet used nitrocellulose to produce the first so-called artificial silk, later known as rayon. The following decades see rapid development focusing on the search for synthetic textile fibers and their manufacturing technologies. As one of the first machine factories, Barmag battles its way through the eventful early years of the manmade fiber industry, the ‘Roaring Twenties’ and the Great Depression – and suffers the extensive destruction of its factories at the end of World War Two. Rebuilding is successful. With the unstoppable success story of purely synthetic plastic fibers such as polyamide, the company flourishes from the 1950s through to the 1970s, establishing sites in all international, for the textile industry at the time important, industrial regions and garnering prestige across the globe in the process. In the ups and downs of expansion, global competition and crises, Barmag reaches the very pinnacle of the market and becomes the preferred technological development partner for the manmade fiber industries in China, India and Turkey. The company has been a high-impact brand under the umbrella of the Oerlikon Group since 2007.

On the wings of innovation
Today, Oerlikon Barmag is a leading supplier of manmade fiber filament spinning systems and part of the Manmade Fibers Solutions business unit of the Oerlikon Polymer Processing Solutions Division. And our aspirations have not diminished: “The striving towards innovation and technological leadership has been, is and will always be part of our DNA”, emphasizes Georg Stausberg, CEO of Oerlikon Polymer Processing Solutions. In the past, this has been observable in such trailblazing innovations as the revolutionary WINGS generation of winders for POY in 2007 and WINGS for FDY in 2012. Currently, the focus of new and further developments is very much on digitalization and sustainability. Here, Oerlikon Barmag has – as one of the world’s first systems manufacturers – been implementing fully-networked smart factories for globally-leading polyester manufacturers since the end of the last decade. Within this context, digital solutions and automation are also helping to provide greater climate and environmental compatibility. This sustainability commitment is not only evidenced by the e-save label introduced for all products back in 2004: Oerlikon is endeavoring to also make all its sites carbon-neutral by 2030 and to acquire its energy exclusively from renewable sources. An ambitious target, whose achievement could be helped by the Oerlikon Barmag anniversary, states Georg Stausberg: “Innovation begins with creativity. And remembering the past provides plenty of motivation and inspiration for the future.”