As a part of its mission to catalyse supply chains and business models, so that spent textiles can be turned into mainstream raw materials, not-for-profit Accelerating Circularity has launched cellulosic textile-to-textile trials.
Single jersey and Italian fleece items, woven light-weight shirts, and heavier-weight twill fabrics will be covered under Accelerating Circularity’s product trials. The target composition is 40% recycled content; half is to come from post-consumer spent textiles. The organisation is aiming at a goal of at least 50 tonnes of spent textile feedstock across products with an ideal deadline of Spring 2023 for the initial development of fabrics.
A world in which there are no wasted textiles and millions of tonnes of waste is diverted from landfills and incineration is the vision of Accelerating Circularity. Polyester textile-to-textile trials were launched by the organisation and it has been working to define cellulosic products and value chains, and has defined four cellulosics value chains.
Karla Magruder, ACP founder, and president said, “We have been working with 80+ value chain members representing the EU-27 plus Norway, Switzerland, the UK, Morocco, and Turkey. Our focus is on post-consumer textiles as we believe they are too good to waste.”
“When a textile has cycled through repair, re-use, resale, and/or re-make, such that it retains no readily accessible value, the material is spent. By diverting post-consumer spent textiles from downcycling, incineration, and landfill, we can lower the textile industry’s environmental impacts.”
Value chain members of the ACPE trials include mountain sports brand Salewa, recovery solutions company TexCycle, yarn producer Gulle Textile and the recycled clothing brand Pure Waste. These companies are given an opportunity to learn and develop their sorting processes and enhance the quality of feedstock for textile-to-textile recycling.
Sirma Zheleva, head of sustainability at TexCycle said, “We believe that ACPE trials, and the collaboration with other value chain experts, will allow us to scale textile-to-textile recycling and achieve circularity in the industry.”
Christine Ladstaetter, innovation and special projects manager of Salewa added, “The framework that ACPE is setting up is a ‘training field’ which drives new ways of collaboration and commitment into circularity, leading to an economy built on the mindful use of resources.”
Source: https://apparelresources.com/