Advancing Recycling Technologies For Mixed Post-consumer Textiles Waste From Blended Products

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• European textiles manufacturers have access to novel technologies for fibre-to-fibre recycling of post-consumer textile waste;
• local authorities and consumers benefit from resource- and cost-efficient waste management of post-consumer blended textiles;
• European recyclers are equipped with properly characterised mixed post-consumer textile waste.

The topic aims at improved management of the end-of-life phase of textile products. Textiles are the fourth highest-pressure category for the use of primary raw materials and water and fifth for GHG emissions and a major source of microplastic pollution in production and use phases. They are also a key material and product stream in the circular economy action plan. Proposals are expected to demonstrate and deploy innovative solutions for increased quality, non-toxicity and durability of secondary textile materials and their processing and treatments.

Proposals should:

• address textile consumer products made of fibre blends (e.g. polycotton, or other blends of multiple materials in combination such as synthetic, semi-synthetic and natural);
• demonstrate and test novel and marketable solutions for post-consumer textile waste (apparel and home textiles) enabling its effective end-of-life collection, sorting and recycling (fibre-to-fibre), possibly including biotech solutions;
• demonstrate and test innovative techniques for effectively disassembling complex products, separating multi-material layers and fibre blends and removal of non-textile components, coatings or contaminants to facilitate efficient recycling processes;
• assess the recyclability limits of textiles by determining the number of recycling cycles a fibre can undergo. When further fibre-to-fibre recycling is no longer viable, alternative applications should be explored to extend the material's value. Solutions should address recycling of products made of natural fibres (e.g., cotton) or/and semi-synthetic fibres, i.e. modified natural fibres (e.g. viscose), blended with synthetic fibres, ensuring optimal resource efficiency and minimizing waste throughout the textile lifecycle;
• characterize post-consumer textile waste in order to define appropriate management practices in particular if the technology is developed within an industrial and urban symbiosis;
• advance recycling technologies that remove persistent chemicals (e.g. PFAS) from post-consumer textile waste which may harm human health and the environment, and that minimise the release of hazardous chemicals and microplastics during the recycling process.

A lifecycle perspective using LCA and LCC should be used when validating the technical and economic feasibility of the developed, improved, demonstrated and up-scaled processes. For comparability reasons, LCAs should use well-established methods and be based on PEF wherever feasible. Proposals should fully incorporate the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) approach.

Proposals are expected to contribute to the objectives of the Textiles of the Future partnership and to build on/coordinate with EU projects funded under the partnership and previous textile-related Horizon Europe calls. Clustering with other relevant Horizon Europe projects is encouraged.

The topic supports the European Green Deal, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and its working plan, the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, the Waste Framework Directive, the Zero Pollution Action Plan, the upcoming Circular Economy Act and contributes to Europe’s efforts to develop a single market for sustainable products. It also contributes to the Start-ups and Scale-ups strategy.