4 days ago
EU's Textile Recycling Excellence Project Creates New Blueprint
The European Union-funded Textile Recycling Excellence (T-Rex) Project wrapped with the completion of a blueprint for scaling textile-to-textile recycling processes for post-consumer polyester, polyamide 6 and cellulosic materials.
The blueprint, which spotlights insights and recommendations for each phase of the value chain, has been informed by in-depth analysis conducted by the T-Rex consortium throughout the project. That analysis included assessing the technical feasibility, economic viability and environmental impact of the recycling value chain.
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The plan was formulated to address four key challenges: technical scalability, business viability, environmental impact and policy recommendations.
Within technical scalability, two major obstacles stand in the way of textile-to-textile recycling—inefficient sorting processes and the need for pre-processing of garments. Current manual sorting methods have proven to inefficient and costly to scale, but advancements in automated sorting technology such as near infrared (NIR) and AI-powered systems could improve yield, throughput and identification of multi-layer or blended garments.
Though the market potential of textile-to-textile recycling in the EU looks promising—with volumes of post-consumer textile waste suitable for recycling projected to reach 1.2 million metric tons by 2030—business viability remains challenging. That's primarily due to limited access to quality feedstock and a lack of infrastructure at scale. Scaling textile-to-textile recycling in Europe will require coordinated financial, regulatory and industrial efforts to overcome these issues.
Ensuring textile-to-textile recycling reduces the environmental impact of fiber production hinges on both the type of material being recycled and the specific recycling technology used. Energy efficiency during the recycling process, as well as the entirety of the manufacturing and supply chain is critical for decreasing environmental impact.
While the EU has some of the most progressive regulatory protocols for textile sustainability through its Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), the T-Rex Project calls for additional governmental support and oversight. Proposed initiatives include economic incentives, end-of-waste criteria, recyclability standards and setting realistic, achievable targets for recycled content.
According to the European Environmental Agency, more than 6.95 million metric tons of textile waste are generated annually in the EU, and that's projected to increase to 7.3 million metric tons by 2030. Much of that waste is incinerated or ends up in a landfill, with only 2 percent of post-consumer textiles in Europe diverted to fiber-to-fiber recycling.
The T-Rex Project launched in 2022 to help combat that problem, assembling 13 stakeholders from across the textile value chain, including Adidas, Aalto University and Infinited Fiber Company, to develop a plan for closed-loop recycling of post-consumer household textile waste in the EU.
While the project's recommendations create a framework for implementing scalable textile-to-textile recycling, the group maintains that this should be just one aspect of a larger-scale effort to reduce textile waste. That strategy should also prioritize reuse, repair and demand management of garments and other textiles.
The full T-Rex blueprint will be available on the project's website,
