Finding answers to the expanding problem of textile waste is becoming more and more important on a European and worldwide scale. With the creation of a knowledge-based masterplan and blueprint to create and illustrate efficient textile recovery, reuse, waste valorisation, and recycling procedures, the EU-funded project tExtended is leading the way in this field of innovation.
Following two years of intensive study, Extended is now moving into the second stage of the project, where it will continue to create its Conceptual Framework, a knowledge-based solution that focuses on quality retention. In order to demonstrate its ability to cut textile waste by 80%, Extended is also getting ready to test it in a real-scale demonstrator of the Industrial-Urban Symbiosis collaboration.
“We look forward to bringing our work about designing a blueprint to the next step. The textile sector is still lacking technologies and infrastructures that can effectively support the shift to a circular model, and we believe that our solutions will strengthen competitiveness and resilience through sustainability and digitalization, while also generating new business,” says tExtended Project Coordinator, Dr. Pirjo Heikkilä from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
All of the countries in the extended consortium—Finland, Sweden, Belgium, France, Ireland, Latvia, Slovakia, Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland—will host these project activities in various formats. Extended will also do limited regional studies to assess the replication potential, but the actual scale demonstrator will be conducted in a broad European collaboration.
Through the involvement of local community actors in project activities, the four-year project, which is supported by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe research and innovation initiative, also focuses on the social component of the textile sector. tExtended will increase individuals’ understanding of the sustainability and circularity of textiles by having them participate in various initiatives pertaining to pre-sorting, returning, and used textiles.
The initiative has already achieved notable milestones along the way to creating the extended vision for a sustainable textile environment. In particular, the outcomes of the enhancement of upcycling procedures and the creation of a data-driven circular ecosystem in the future will impact the forthcoming efforts to achieve the Extended targets.
To read more information on the improvement of upcycling processes, please visit our website: https://textended.eu/2023/11/29/textended-reaches-milestone-on-upcycling-processes/
To read our report on Redesigning Value Chains, please visit: www.textended.eu/downloads
