Supporting circularity of textiles by combining textile recovery, valorisation, and recycling processes with data-drive solutions.
The accumulation of textile waste is a global challenge that requires efficient recycling solutions: currently, it is estimated that less than 1% of textile waste is being recycled back to textiles.
tExtended, a Horizon Europe-funded project that started in December 2022, aims to deal with these challenges by introducing an innovative approach to the cycling of discarded textiles. The project will ultimately develop a Blueprint, a knowledge-based masterplan for the optimized cycling for the different textile flows, defining the implementation of a circular textile ecosystem that will include reduction of waste, extended reuse of textile products, and efficient material recycling of end-of-life textiles.
The development of the Blueprint will start with the creation of a Conceptual Framework to identify textile waste classification, industrial and economical aspects, and environmental impact; it will then be tested within an Industrial-Urban symbiosis collaborative real scale demonstrator. These results will be developed alongside a wide range of digital and technological solutions, facilitating and improving the replicability of the tExtended solutions in different European regions, especially business opportunities linked with circular systems and environmentally and socially sustainable innovations.
To utilize the waste as efficiently as possible, tExtended brings together a consortium of 20 partners from 10 different European countries, composed by experts of textile industry, circular economy, digitalization and data management, waste management, recycling, and sustainability. Seamless collaboration among all actors is needed to provide the whole textile ecosystem with the necessary digital solutions to collect data and utilize data-driven solutions.
tExtended will also involve local community actors in the development of solutions; therefore, consumers will ensure the feasibility of the model while at the same time their awareness on sustainability and circularity of textile will increase. tExtended will test models to realize a high local collection and sale, to increase the popularity of second-hand textiles.
“We are effectively looking to create a master plan for a sustainable textile ecosystem. The tExtended project will optimise textile flows and retain the value of materials in a safe and sustainable way. Through our extensive pilot studies, we will verify the replicability of the tExtended solutions and their potential to reduce textile waste by 80%”,
tExtended Project Coordinator, Dr. Pirjo Heikkilä from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.