From the Sector

ROICA™ strengthens its presence in the apparel segment thanks to its established network of partners, who will present their latest innovations at the upcoming Première Vision.

ROICA™ partners are the “artists” and “heartists” of premium stretch in fabrics: because they have at heart all the values for which ROICA™ stands for. These partners presenting at Première Vision are:

• Iluna Group, whose journey into the new dimension of responsibility continues with developments in GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certified recycled yarns aimed at unprecedented effects in looks, performance and hands. Brand new for this edition of Première Vision is the inclusion of GOTS-certified organic cotton in GRS-certified galloons and allover lace containing ROICA™ EF, so as to meet market demands for natural comfort in the underwear sphere.
• Innova Fabrics, which recently enhanced its smart offering by launching the RF (Residual Free) line, with the goal of reducing the impact of microplastics derived from the fashion industry. This is made possible by mixing two responsible ingredients, SENSIL® BioCare by Nilit and ROICA™ V550 by Asahi Kasei, which give birth to both sporty and casual fabrics.
• Inplet, which enriched its production of smart elastic and rigid knitted fabrics with three new products: a powernet fabric in 77% polyamide RECO and 23% ROICA™ EF with good recovery; a net fabric in 55% polyamide RECO and 45% ROICA™ EF characterized by a soft hand and good elasticity; and a 79% polyamide and 21% ROICA™ V550 good power, good recovery and a soft touch.
• Penn Textile Solutions/Penn Italia, whose highlights of the new collection are on one side fabrics developed with the use of Neride eco yarns by Nurel with ROICA™ V550, characterized by restraining lace effect, soft touch and breathable, in combination with tulle as a sustainable basic, and on the other side charmeuses with soft hand, raw cut in combination with a band fabric from the dreamshape family with reinforced gripping edge, made again in Neride eco yarns by Nurel with ROICA™ V550
• Tessitura Colombo Antonio, which in its new A/W 23-24 collection expands its proposal of regenerated lace from the ECO-LACE line: new designs inspired by fashion trends using ROICA™ EF. Also, in its BIODEGRADABLE line it uses ROICA™ V550 for the realization of new designs. The new MICROMODAL line uses ROICA™ V550; the effect of this lace range is softness, elegance and relief effect.

Fiery®, the digital front end (DFE) and workflow business of EFI, announced that it has acquired CADlink® Technology Corp., a software company that delivers solutions for the high growth areas of digital direct-to-garment (DTG) and direct-to-film (DTF) printing; digital cutting and engraving; digital wide-format print; and vehicle wraps. CADlink’s products address increasingly important customer needs for customization and personalization, and for reducing the time spent moving work from design to production.

CADlink is a global software company that serves markets that require unique workflows involving different types of production devices. CADlink’s products are recognized leaders in design, RIP and workflow technology, and are sold globally to customers through OEM partners and an extensive network of resellers. CADlink’s products, partners and channels are a natural complement to what the Fiery business delivers for its global commercial, display graphics and industrial printing customer base.  

The CADlink software portfolio includes proven, advanced solutions that support the development and growth of e-commerce for custom-manufactured products.

“Becoming part of the EFI Fiery business will extend the geographic reach for our products and enhance our ability to support and drive greater value to customers and partners worldwide,” said CADlink Co-founder and CEO Gordon Reynen.

Having first collaborated on the iconoclastic SST Ammonite shoe as part of the brand’s Catalyst for Change program in 2020, adidas Originals and MRBAILEY have come together once again to ignite the start of an ongoing partnership that will see the innovative designer reimagine the Trefoil’s futuristic OZWORLD family of silhouettes.

MRBAILEY is the founder of innovative footwear design studio CONCEPTKICKS. London-based but nomadic by nature, the progressive creator’s practice specializes in an approach to footwear innovation that is distinctly speculative in thinking and undeniably boundary pushing in execution.

Using the biological research that informed the SST Ammonite silhouette as its starting point and informed by the ethos “nature is our greatest luxury”, MR BAILEY’s collaborative partnership with adidas Originals will explore the innate systems of design within the marine habitat. Building on the inherent wonder and beauty of aquatic lifeforms through design techniques, the partnership promises to challenge the artificial distinction between man made production and the natural world.

Exhibiting companies can now register for A+A 2023! The world's leading trade fair and congress event for personal protection, occupational safety and health at work will take place in Düsseldorf from 24 to 27 October 2023.

Under the motto "People count", numerous exhibitors will present innovative solutions and concepts for safe and healthy working at A+A 2023. This time, the thematic umbrella of the international trade fair is formed by the megatrends of digitalisation and sustainability.

Decision-makers and experts will find cross-sector solutions and answers to the important questions surrounding a safe, healthy and sustainable workplace. From personal protective equipment (PPE), operational fire protection, environmental protection or disaster prevention to offers for ergonomic and healthy workplace design.

The focus will be on topics such as sustainability and the circular economy of products, digital services in the provision, care and storage of PPE, mobile working, exoskeletons (wearable robots) and wearables. Forums and side events as well as an innovative Start-up Zone complement the trade fair and set new, future-oriented impulses.

For more information and registration click here.

On June 13, EREMA Group and Borealis invited representatives of the international plastics and recycling trade press to Upper Austria for a sneak preview of the technological developments and lighthouse projects that the companies will present at K 2022, the plastics industry's international meeting place. The venue for the pre-K event was EREMA Group headquarters in Ansfelden.

EREMA Group K 2022 preview
In Düsseldorf, the subsidiaries of the EREMA Group - which are EREMA, PURE LOOP, UMAC, 3S, KEYCYCLE and PLASMAC - will present their technological innovations, services and support together at a Group trade fair stand for the first time. Seven new recycling systems and components will be presented that enable large-scale plants with a production capacity of up to 6 t/h while setting a milestone in recyclate quality and process stability. This is made possible by technological innovations in the plasticizing unit that have been specially developed for high throughputs with low specific energy consumption, the new EREMA 406 laser filter with a 50 percent larger screening area, and new digital assistance systems that will be launched at K 2022 and made available on the BluPort® customer platform. These include, for example, the PredictOn app, which helps to anticipate and eliminate imminent malfunctions based on continuous measurement and evaluation of machine data.

New series of machines for new target groups
For customers looking for rapidly available recycling systems for simple applications, EREMA Group subsidiary UMAC has an innovation in store for K 2022. The company, which has so far specialised in refurbishing and trading in previously owned equipment, is expanding its business area and in Düsseldorf will launch READYMAC, a standardised, prefabricated recycling solution that can be produced from stock, based on proven EREMA TVE technology.

Finally, in the inhouse recycling segment, PURE LOOP and PLASMAC will round off the wide range of machines offered by the group of companies with their product portfolio.

Live recycling and lighthouse projects at the Circonomic Center
In the outdoor area of the K show, EREMA will bring plastics recycling to life with live demonstrations in conjunction with cooperation partners. Different waste streams are processed for this purpose. The wide variety of high-quality applications for recyclate will be showcased in the "products made of recyclate" exhibition, ranging from technical components to consumer goods and food packaging.

Borealis – accelerating the transition towards a more circular future
Borealis is committed to using their expertise and global reach to advance the circular economy of plastics. At the joint Pre-K 2022 kick-off on June 13, Borealis provided a preview of their integrated way of circular thinking and featured topics and activities at the K Fair 2022 in October. The preview covered new technologies and innovations including new packaging and infrastructure applications of the Bornewables™ portfolio of circular polyolefin products, manufactured with renewable feedstocks. New applications for Design for Recyclability, Re-Use, chemical recycling and advanced mechanical recycling were also on display.

International technology group ANDRITZ has established a new inline Wetlace™ CP pilot line with an original design at its center of competence in Montbonnot, France. The line combines both spunlace and wetlaid technologies.

From now on, partners will be able to conduct trials and test all options available for wipes production – from carded staple fibers to pulp and various combinations thereof. The combination of both spunlace and wetlaid technologies offers to move forward to more sustainable options while maintaining a high level of product quality, in particular by achieving high CD strength and good linting properties.

Over the past few decades, ANDRITZ has continued to innovate with various nonwoven processes, like spunlace, WetlaceTM and Wetlace™ CP, with the aim of optimizing the use of raw materials and focusing on sustainability by reducing the synthetic fiber content. Facing the growing demand for bio-wipes in parallel with enforcement of the EU’s single-use plastics directive last year, ANDRITZ has decided to support its customers making their investment decisions.

The Montbonnot pilot line has been rebuilt to integrate the new headbox inside the spunlace line. Pulp can be fed in directly and entangled with carded staple fibers to produce unique nonwoven fabrics designed for end uses as bio-wipes.

• New yarns for the contract furnishing world, for industrial sewing threads and the challenge of biodegradable polyester

At the product level, big impulse has been given to the range of industrial sewing threads for various uses, with new references both in the polyester + polyester compositions as well as in cotton + polyester. The industrial threads, marketed as raw material, allow the company to consolidate its position on some strategic markets, such as in Germany.

As a result of the partnership with Trevira® for the spinning of the flame-retardant Trevira^®CS fibre, Filidea Technical Yarns reinforces its offer of non-dyed performant yarns aimed at the world of contract furnishings. The sector of hospitality, of furnishings for public and work spaces, fairs and areas for social-cultural gatherings will find a comprehensive answer to its demands in the Trevira^®CS-based yarns: with regard to fireproof standards, versatility, resistance to wear and tear, excellent colour rendering, and last but not least, the component of fibre sustainability, an essential value for the design of spaces for collective use.

Continuing in the development of sustainable production across the sector, the company has undertaken two important initiatives with other actors in the textile supply chain. Filidea participates in Trick, the European blockchain project – part of the European Horizon 2020 programme – involving 29 partners from six different nations to reinforce the circular economy thanks to the development of a digital platform which is complete, traceable and available to operators in the textile sector.

MagnoLab, the network of enterprises in the textile supply chain, and of which Filidea is one of the founding members, gives the impulse to constant R&D activities. MagnoLab was established in 2022 in order to develop tangible solutions for the sector, to create values and to collaborate with regard to current and future demands.

MagnoLab brings together textile companies which are active at various stages of and with complementary roles in the supply chain, and which work in synergy and share objectives, resourcefulness and long-sightedness, with the aim of developing innovation in a structured way. MagnoLab is also open to welcome new partners.

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.

As of 30 May 2022, EREMA Group GmbH acquired 19.8 percent of plasticpreneur® gmbh. plasticpreneur® is an Austrian start-up company founded two years ago that manufactures at its production site in Klagenfurt recycling solutions for plastic waste that are mobile and can be operated without prior knowledge. The machine portfolio covers the recycling process and the production of new end-products. Due to it´s wide range of applications, it is in demand both in the Global South and in industrialised countries.

In the two years since the company was founded, plasticpreneur® has already sold 330 machines to customers in over 70 countries on all continents. In addition, they have made over 750 application-specific moulds, many of them custom-built to comply with individual customer specifications.

While plastics recycling has gained enormous momentum in the industrialised countries, more remote and poorer regions of the world have hardly benefited from high-tech solutions for industrial recycling processes so far. They are held back by a lack of infrastructure and know-how. That is why waste is often incinerated or disposed of in landfills, rivers and the surrounding environment. "Our mission - Another life for plastic, because we care - is also aimed at supporting these regions with solutions for plastic recycling, and with plasticpreneur® we have found the ideal partner for this," says Manfred Hackl, CEO EREMA Group.

The start-up company's machines can process HDPE, PP, PS, LDPE, PLA, AB and TPU separately. Their product range includes a shredder, injection moulding unit, extruder unit for the production of end products, air filters as well as custom-built moulds. "For our machines to be used in regions with little infrastructure, they must be easy to operate without prior knowledge. The fact that we also develop end-product solutions needed locally makes our range of services particularly attractive here," explains Sören Lex, CEO and co-founder of plasticpreneur®. As soon as recycling also becomes a source of income for the operators, they become entrepreneurs. That explains the name of the start-up, a word created from "plastic" and "entrepreneur". plasticpreneur® customers in these countries include e.g. social enterprises and operators of refugee camps, where everyday consumer goods - from clothes pegs and school supplies to toys and fence posts - are produced and sold using plastic waste. This means that the added value stays local.

The demand for plasticpreneur® machines is also increasing in industrialised countries. On the one hand by educational institutions and organisations that use them to raise awareness of the need for a circular economy in workshops and to give pupils as well as adults a better understanding of plastic recycling. On the other hand by customers who are developing new end-products for plastic waste together with plasticpreneur®. Because the machines are so easy to operate they enable a low-theshold use of recycled plastics in product development processes, starting from generating prototypes to launchin small series production. Small companies, product designers and developers therefore are another steadily growing customer segment.

The sustainable collaboration and innovation between Indorama Ventures (IVL), Auping and TWE Group presented a certified cradle to cradle process for mattress components across nonwoven applications, at Techtextil, Frankfurt, 21st to 24th June 2022.

Using circular research and design, the industry partnership between IVL Mullagh (Ireland), Auping and TWE Group has resulted in a perpetual, sustainable economic business model, for manufacturers globally. The inclusion of safe raw materials within mattress manufacturing allows the materials to be easily disassembled at the product’s end of use in order to be further reused as same components or recycled into new raw material at the same quality level, to enable versatile textile applications.

Designed for disassembly to optimize the use of existing resources, reduce carbon footprint and support customer objectives all along their customers’ supply chain. This circular industry collaboration begins with design, where the mattress is constructed using only two different base materials, 100% PET polyester textiles and steel wire pocket springs connected with Niaga®️, a non toxic reversible adhesive, making the mattress easy to disassemble and recover.

IVL, Auping and TWE’s shared vision for a better world is demonstrated through their connected and innovative circularity that helps to close the loop. Auping collects, sorts and separates the collected fabrics, which then go to IVL Mullagh for processing, melting and extrusion to form polyester staple fiber. These staple fibers are then converted by TWE Group into nonwovens for use in Auping’s Evolve mattress, a fully circular mattress. Following the end of mattress use, the material recovery process simply starts again.

Auping estimates that annually more than 40 million mattresses are disposed of in Europe alone, the majority of which are incinerated. Their take back system in the Netherlands ensures that when their new mattress is delivered, the old mattress is retrieved and recycled, irrespective of the brand, ensuring existing materials are continually optimized, diverted from landfill and kept in use to achieve a circular economy.