A new project, called CISUTAC, was launched Tuesday to support the transition to a circular and sustainable textiles sector in Europe.
- CISUTAC aims to remove current bottlenecks in order to increase textile circularity in Europe. The objective is to minimise the sector’s total environmental impact by developing sustainable, novel, and inclusive large-scale European value chains.
- Led by Centexbel, the Belgian research centre for textiles and plastics, the CISUTAC consortium is EU-wide, and includes global leading brands and companies, civil society organisations, research and technology organisations, and EU associations.
The project: CISUTAC is a Horizon Europe project, co-funded by the European Union. It will last for 48 months, and receive funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.
- The project will cover most parts of the textile sector by working on 2 material groups representing almost 90% of all textile fibre materials (polyester, and cotton/cellulosic fibres), and focusing on products from three sub-sectors experiencing varying circularity bottlenecks (fashion garments, sports and outdoor goods, and workwear).
The backdrop: The production and consumption of textile products continue to grow, together with their impact on the environment, due to a lack of reuse, repair and recycling of materials.
- Quality, durability, and recyclability are often not being set as priorities in the design and manufacturing of clothing (EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, March 2022).
The approach: CISUTAC will follow a holistic approach covering the technical, sectoral and socio-economic aspects, and will perform 3 pilots to demonstrate the feasibility and value of:
- Repair and disassembly;
- Sorting (for reuse and recycling);
- Circular garments through fibre-to-fibre recycling and design for circularity.
To realise these pilots, the consortium partners will:
- Develop semi-automated workstations;
- Analyse the infrastructure and material flows;
- Digitally enhance sorting operations (for reuse and recycling);
- Raise awareness among the consumers and the textile industry.
The partners: CISUTAC will be a consortium of 26 partners:
- Centexbel (CTB)
- AIMPLAS - Technological Institute of Plastics
- Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource management (ACR+)
- Circular Systems
- De Kringwinkel Antwerpen
- Decathlon Produzione Italia
- Erema Group
- EURATEX
- Global Textile Scheme GmbH
- Inditex
- Inlecom Commercial Pathways Ireland (ICP)
- Lenzing Group
- Oxfam
- PCH Innovations
- PVH
- Refashion
- Research Institutes of Sweden (RI.SE)
- RREUSE
- Sioen Apparel
- Södra Skogsägarna
- STAM
- TEXAID
- Confederación de la Industria Textil - TEXFOR
- European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (Textile ETP)
- Wageningen University & Research (WUR)
- Wargön Innovation
