A new circular economy concept for textiles and chemicals

An innovative textile recycling plant could recycle 500 tons of waste per year

An innovative textile recycling plant could recycle 500 tons of waste per year

Did you know that the EU textile industry generates an estimated 16 million tons of waste per year? Taking into account that much of this waste either ends up in landfills or is incinerated, it is safe to say that there is a great deal of valuable resources that are lost.

In an attempt to reduce textile waste and apply circular economy in practice, the RESYNTEX project, funded under EU's research and innovation Framework Programme Horizon 2020, is purposed to develop innovative circular economy business models for the chemical and textile industry, via the transformation of unwearable textile waste into secondary raw materials. Chemicals from the textile waste is also aimed to be extracted and recycled as well, as the proposed technologies will cover the whole textile value chain. For example, after the chemical treatment of the sorted textile waste, the extracted protein-based fibres could be used for producing wood panel adhesives, the cellulosic fibres for the production of bioethanol, and polyamid (PA) and polyester (PET) for the production of new chemicals and plastic bottles. The innovative project’s ultimate goal is to demonstrate a pilot textile recycling plant, which could recycle 500 tons of waste per year.

RESYNTEX brings together 20 partners from across 10 different EU member states, including industrial associations, businesses, SMEs and research institutes, while Horizon 2020 is contributing € 8.8 million to this project.

Source: European Commission