Neues Projekt: Kreislauffähige Produktklone

Currently, only 1% of all garments collected worldwide can be recycled. Moreover, due to fast fashion, the quality of the collected used clothing is so inferior that neither reuse is possible, nor recycling is worthwhile.

What requirements do textile products have to meet in order to be recycled, which materials should be replaced by more sustainable ones, which fibres should be phased out or replaced, which technologies allow us to carry out valuable high quality recycling...? These are just some of the questions that the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles seeks to answer in cooperation with its partners.  

In this context, the Recycling Working Group was established by and with the members of the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, and the project "Recyclable Product Clones" was launched in March 2021. In the project, eleven selected products from the members are been examined by the Research Institute for Textiles and Clothing at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences in terms of their recyclability. The selection includes a backpack, PES-based functional laminates, bed linen, women's clothing, socks, work wear and hiking shorts.

The aim of the project is to develop more sustainable updates of the products. Barriers to the recyclability of the products will be identified and recommendations formulated to improve the design and material circularity of the products. At the end of the project, the participating companies will have gained the necessary knowledge to produce more sustainable and recyclable "clones" of their nominated products.