Textile Recycling Expo: recycling sector eager to launch and requests additional EU support
The textile recycling sector is ready to tackle the mountain of clothing waste but is awaiting the implementation of European regulations compelling companies to pay for the waste stage of their designs. Without additional investment, recyclers, collectors, and sorters are at risk of disappearing.
Brussels - “The elephant in the room? We need to collaborate more and better. Only when brands, policymakers, collectors, sorters, and recyclers join forces can we make the sector more sustainable,” explained Oscar Bel, business developer at Reju, at the start of the Textile Recycling Expo.
A conversation with the German recycling company, which sponsored the expo, proved to be an ideal starting point for two days at the textile trade fair. This was all due to the elephant in question. An “elephant in the room” filled with discarded clothes flanked the Reju stand. It was a major attraction; LinkedIn is full of photos with the animal. The message of pulling together was also repeated ad nauseam during the trade fair.
DHL wants to collaborate more. H&M wants to collaborate more. Primark wants to collaborate more. Recyclers want to collaborate much more. This is not illogical, as recyclers are currently struggling. They are finding it difficult to secure investments and are waiting for legislators to implement Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which requires companies to pay a waste contribution for the clothes they place on the market.
This law already exists in France and the Netherlands. Producer organisations in other countries, such as Belgium, are waiting until the last moment: April 2028. This is not ideal, as the obligation for selective collection of textile waste is already in effect, said Ekatarina Stoyanova of Recycling Europe during her closing speech.
The EU made a mistake there, according to Gail Orton, European policy director at Shein. “We are in a period where textiles are being collected without the investment and resources to manage that collection. The same risk now applies to the Extended Producer Responsibility law. Countries that are already implementing the EPR law are not receiving sufficient guidance. It is inevitable that member states will each implement the EPR rules in their own way, which is difficult for brands like ours.”
Lack of a business case
Following the general tone of the trade fair, sympathy for brands is not the main issue; it is primarily the recyclers who are in dire straits. Robert van de Kerkhof, CEO of ReHubs, emphasised this in his keynote on the economics of recycling. To put it mildly, the situation is very poor. In fact, Van de Kerkhof stated there is no economic model. The sector must first scale up, which requires investment, but this is currently too risky.
“Currently, 1.5 million tonnes of clothing are collected selectively. To achieve recycling at scale, we need at least 5 million tonnes per year.” To process all this clothing, Van de Kerkhof – and he is not alone – is eagerly awaiting the implementation of the EPR law. “However, in the meantime, we need support from the EU, otherwise we risk stifling investment. Once everything is in place, there will no longer be a problem; the EPR can then finance it. We cannot keep waiting for that, because otherwise all the progress of recent years will have been for nothing.”
The figures Van de Kerkhof presented are sobering. “We currently face an investment deficit of 55 percent. Sorters need 300 million euros in investment. Recyclers are asking for two to seven billion euros. A few years ago, we estimated the total cost of this transition at five to six billion euros. Now we are talking about 15 billion, and more detailed reports are on the way.”
Insights from the trade fair floor: AI sorting, dye removers and a lot of polyester
One of the avenues that receives too little attention, as several speakers emphasised, is the importance of sorting. There are 90 million tonnes of textile waste globally, said Katarina Kempe of Circulose. “There is no shortage of discarded items, but the bottleneck lies in collecting and sorting these clothes. Nobody wants to pay for it, yet everyone depends on it.” The trade fair floor, however, offered a sense of optimism in this regard, with an increasing number of companies focusing on this area.
Both established players, like the West-Flemish company Valvan which had the largest stand, and start-ups such as Brussels-based Trosort, Danish New Retex, and German Reverse.Fashion, specialise in automatic sorting. They all use AI (including Valvan, which showcased not only its well-known Fibersort but also its latest invention, Hypersort) to streamline the sorting processes for second-hand companies. This also helps recycling companies, as they lack sufficient feedstock, in addition to investment, to scale up their operations.
Preparing textiles for recycling requires more than just a sorting belt. As awareness of the harmful effects of PFAS and other chemicals grows, more companies are emerging to strip textile dyes, coatings, and finishes from clothing destined for recycling. We use between 3,000 and 10,000 chemicals to dye and finish a garment, said Libby Sommer of ChemForward, “although not all of them are harmful”. To ensure no toxic substances remain after recycling, companies like DyeRecycle, with which both Reju and Sommer collaborate, and e.dye exist to remove all these colours.
Another notable trend on the trade fair floor was the large number of recyclers specialising in processing polyester. A significant portion remains committed to producing rPET, or ‘recycled polyester’, which is made from PET bottles rather than clothes. The T2T Alliance, formed last year, was given ample time on a panel to explain why we need to move away from rPET and focus more on ‘textile-to-textile’ recycling. “The purpose of the EPR is to deal with post-consumer textiles. If we do not invest in textile-to-textile recycling, we will not get rid of them,” summarised Beth Vosper from the chemical recycler Circ.
Most rPET recyclers can process both PET bottles and textiles. One of them, DePoly, is even exploring making PET bottles from textiles, although business lead Zoë Pfeiffer admitted that this application is far less interesting. “We mainly produce textile-to-textile recyclate for the European market,” said an employee of a Chinese recycler who wished to remain anonymous. “The highest demand for rPET is in China.”
Europe as an economic island
During the panel discussions, some recyclers, such as Reju, which operates only in Europe and the US, called for recycling to be done primarily within Europe (or the global north). However, staying local is not a good idea, according to Ana Rhodes of Recover. Companies should primarily engage with the best recycling option, not necessarily the closest one. “The collection and production of textiles do not only happen in Europe but all over the world. We will always depend on other countries and other continents. Introducing rules about proximity will drive up costs and slow down investment. That way, we will never get the sector to scale.”
“The EU wants to be an economic island: what we consume here, we also want to recycle here,” said Lutz Walter of Textile ETP. “I wonder if that is realistic? In any case, the EPR contributions must be high enough to cover the actual cost of recycling.”
Europe is becoming reluctant to see its second-hand textiles exported abroad. To avoid environmental problems in the global south, such as mountains of waste and beaches covered in textiles, it wants to phase out the export of our discarded items. This also carries risks, said Ekatarina Stoyanova of Recycling Europe. “We have to be careful, because textile collectors are already struggling. They still make money from exports. If you stop that, the collectors and sorters in Europe will lose out. Then you will lose the second-hand industry in Europe even before the EPR is introduced.”
The global south was represented by one speaker at the expo: Edward Atobrah Binkley, the secretary-general of the Ghana Used Clothing Dealers Association. He emphasised that the Ghanaian economy desperately needs these discarded items.
Materials of the future
Alongside all the discarded fabrics, there is still a great deal of thought being given in Brussels to new, innovative materials. This was the focus of the Future Fabrics Fair, held for the first time in Brussels. From grape leather to banana cotton, you can find a progressive material for almost any application, all aiming to contribute to sustainability. It is a great initiative, according to doctoral researcher Laetitia Forst (UAL), who spoke on the recycling side about more sustainable design. However, she finds it strange that the two expos have joined forces. “On the one hand, you have recycling, and on the other, you have fabrics that may be innovative but are often more difficult to recycle.”
Lutz Walter questions whether all these start-ups, like the recyclers themselves, will be able to keep their heads above water. “How often do people say that after hours of lab work, they have found a solution? No, you do not have a solution; you have a technology. Once you find a first partner willing to work with you on a pilot project, then you have a promising technology. After your first order, you have proof that your technology works. Only when a company wants to work with you a second time can you speak of a product.”
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