Project T-Rex

Textile Recycling Excellence (T-REX)

Project objective: The project aims to contribute to understanding and identifying the infrastructure, technology and policy needed to encourage the growth of circular value chains in the textile industry. The partners will work towards developing a systematic approach to addressing the problem of textile waste, resource preservation and reduction of the environmental footprint of the fashion industry.

Project Partners: Aalto University, adidas, BASF, CuRe technology, Fashion for Good, FAU the Institute of Polymer Technology, Infinited Fiber Company, Linz Textil, Quantis, TWD Fibers, Veolia

Project timeline: June 2022 – June 2025

Summary

Immense Opportunity to Accelerate Textile Recycling

It is currently estimated that only 2% of post-consumer textiles in Europe are diverted to fibre-to-fibre recycling*. Creating a circular system for post-consumer textile waste currently faces many challenges, including a lack of standards for collecting and sorting textile waste across countries, inaccurate composition claims, uneven quality of materials, and a lack of reliable data across value chain stakeholders.

The T-REX Project will increase knowledge on the systemic change required to scale fibre-to-fibre recycling, adding to previous studies that include the Fashion for Good and Circle Economy’s recent ‘Sorting for Circularity Europe’ Report. The analysis, of which, indicates that 74% of low value, post-consumer textiles are readily available for fibre-to-fibre recycling in six European countries. This finding offers an immense opportunity to accelerate textile recycling, but still requires an integrated approach to deliver for scale.

A Consortium of Cross-Industry Leaders

Over a three-year period, the T-REX Project will collect and sort household textile waste and demonstrate the full recycling process of polyester, polyamide 6, and cellulosic materials from textile waste into new garments. Simultaneously, the Project aims to demonstrate sustainable and economically feasible business models for each actor along the value chain, conduct lifecycle analysis of the circular process, integrate digital tools that streamline the process of closed-loop textile recycling, and produce circular design guidelines.

Support

We are grateful for the support we receive from the European Union under the Horizon Europe program

Find out more here Driving textile recycling excellence