Circular economy
08. Jun 2021
Circular economy of textiles just a wishful dream?
A Climate Neutral Europe by 2050.
This target and the strong focus on a resource-efficient and circular economy is fixed in the European Commission's GREEN DEAL.
This also creates new challenges for the entire industry.
More about GREEN DEAL
Sustainable action is often associated with waiving. But well-designed and innovative products can ultimately lead to the success of the circular economy and a paradigm change.
Upcycling: Used textiles become high-quality yarns again.
Carl Weiske set itself the task of developing a recycling network to recycle used textiles into high-quality yarns.
By developing the recycling network and an innovative process technology for upcycling of used textiles, we were able to realize how essential a recyclable product design and the avoidance of harmful substances really are.
The textile cycle started with our GREENTEX polyester yarn made from recycled PET bottles, for which we put special focus on a high-quality recycling process & traceability from the bottle polymer onwards to achieve consistent product quality.
According to research, it was found out that some polymers create challenges for recycling and therefore have to be substituted, which has an impact on the design and construction of the textiles. In addition to avoide harmful substances, there is primarily a focus on the design of the final garments.
That is why the development of a design-to-recycle concept for different materials, trims and equipment is the focus of our work.
As a milestone, we succeeded in producing a rEvolution hybrid jacket made from used textiles and recycled PET bottles. At the end of its lifetime, it can be completely recycled into high-quality functional textiles.
The article published in TextileNetwork is also worth reading: Carl Weiske: The rEvolution Hybrid jacket