It was strictly sitting on the floor or standing room only for the opening day lectures of the very first Textile Recycling Expo in Brussels, Belgium on Wednesday (June 4^th).

The organisers appear to have underestimated the immense interest in this field, which is rapidly gaining momentum on many fronts – although free admission maybe also helped to swell the numbers a little.

In his opening address, Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea, the European Commission’s director for circular economy, commented on both the energy of the event and the impressive technologies on display. He also reassured attendees of the full support that would be provided in helping companies and associations better deal with textile waste that is now banned from incineration or landfilling within the European Union.

New initiatives being mulled here include the potential of introducing mandatory public procurement for certain textile categories within the EU, while simplifying the bureaucracy around such schemes, and at the same time, speeding up the introduction of EPR (extended producer responsibility) programmes in member state countries and aiming to achieve as much harmonisation between them as is possible. A public consultation programme on textile waste is also being organised throughout EU member states.

“Tomorrow will not look like yesterday for the textile industry, which has a supply chain that is long, and with manufacturing in many countries outside the EU,” Ciobanu-Dordea said. “We want to fully include them and test our ideas against the reality out there, through full consultation.”

T2T

New and highly sophisticated systems for the sorting of waste textiles – viewed as a major supply chain bottleneck at present – are being demonstrated at the event by the likes of Mesdan, New Retex, Pic-Visa and Valvan, and the recently-formed T2T Alliance – representing some of the key Next Gen recycling companies – looks poised to become highly influential going forward.

The alliance includes Circ, Circulose, Re&Up, Samsara Eco and Syre, all of whom have announced major expansion initiatives in just the past few months.

Speaking about the aims of the alliance, Dolly Vellanki, Circ’s sourcing and public affairs manager, outlined the major points of a new position paper.

“Firstly, both post-consumer and post-industrial textile waste need to be considered equally important in enabling our companies to access the key feedstocks which will support scaling for us now,” she said. “We are then seeking the mandatory inclusion of 10% of recycled content in all new textiles to be introduced by 2028, rising to 15% by 2030 and 30% by 2035.

“We then need to see the introduction of a robust verification and traceability programme incorporating both chain of custody and mass balance, but only if recycled content percentages become mandatory.”

The T2T Alliance is further stressing that this should not be a ‘Made in Europe’ solution.

“We are very dependent on global supply chains and protectionism is not the way forward,” said Marco Lucietti, head of global marketing and communications for Re&Up. “Spinning and weaving operations are changing because of recycling and there can be no impact on quality. This needs to be done globally and is poised to become a $30 billion new industry by 2030, so there is space for everyone.”

A more extensive report from the Expo will be published on Innovation in Textiles in the next few weeks.

Textile Recycling Expo