New Cotton Project Concludes, Makes 8 Recommendations

The New Cotton Project has drawn to a close, marking the end of the endeavour wherein twelve organisations joined forces to demonstrate a circular textile-to-textile model for commercial garment production in Europe.

• The wider context of the project at the time of the launch was the impending EU legislation in the Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) and Textiles Strategy, including extended producer responsibility (EPR) and ecodesign for sustainable products (ESPR).
• The key learnings were released earlier in March this year.

THE RECOMMENDATIONS: Following the conclusion of the 3.5 year project, eight key findings and recommendations have been published to help guide the next steps for stakeholders:

1. The wide scale adoption of circular value chains is critical to success: Textile circularity requires new forms of collaboration and open knowledge exchange among different actors in circular ecosystems, including actors beyond traditional supply chains and previously disconnected industries and sectors.
2. Circularity starts with the design process: When creating new styles, it is important to keep an end-of-life scenario in mind right from the beginning. If designers make it as easy as possible for the recycling process, it has the bigger chance to actually be feedstock again.
3. Building and scaling sorting and recycling infrastructure is critical: In order to scale up circular garment production, there is an urgent need for technological innovation and infrastructure development in end-of-use textiles collection, sorting, and the mechanical pre-processing of feedstock.
4. Improving quality and availability of data is essential: There is still a significant lack of available data to support the shift towards a circular textiles industry. This is slowing down development of system level solutions and economic incentives for textile circulation.
5. The need for continuous research and development across the entire value chain: The project demonstrated that the scaling of fibre-to-fibre recycling will continue to require ongoing research and development across the entire value chain, improving sorting systems is crucial and the manufacturing process will benefit from ongoing innovation in processing methods.
6. Thinking beyond lower impact fibres: The New Cotton Project LCA analysis shows that even if we reduce the environmental impacts by using recycled fibres, there is still work to do in other life cycle stages.
7. Citizen engagement: An adidas quantitative consumer survey conducted during the project revealed that there is still confusion around circularity in textiles, which has highlighted the importance of effective citizen communication and engagement activities.
8. Cohesive legislation: With several pieces of incoming legislation within the EU alone, the need for a cohesive and harmonised approach is essential to the successful implementation of policy within the textiles industry.

MOVING ON: The learnings from the New Cotton Project will remain available on the project website till 2026.

PROJECT TIMELINE: Major milestones included:

• Oct 2020 | Project Launch: The project kicks off with a consortium of 12 partners in the fashion and textile industry.
• 2021 | Fibre processing and production: Pre-processing and testing yarn production.
• 2022 | Yarn and garment production: Adidas and companies in the H&M group start on garment production and manufacturing.
• 2024 | Results: Project results and reporting.

PROJECT PARTICIPANTS: Each of the 12 participants in this project had a unique role in defining a blueprint for circularity in textiles.

• Infinited Fiber Company created its unique, cellulose-based textile fibres (cellulose carbamate fibres) out of post-consumer textile waste.
• Frankenhuis and Xamk worked on the pre-processing and research for pre-treatment of textile waste.
• Manufacturers Inovafil, Tekstina and Kipas used the regenerated fibres to produce yarns, woven fabrics and denim respectively.
• REvolve Waste, RISE and Aalto University, collected and provide data, conducted research and analysis.
• Fashion for Good led on the communications to the industry.
• Design and manufacture of the fibres into clothing was done by companies in the H&M Group and Adidas.