Arapaha is a start-up based on Maastricht, the Netherlands. We fundamentally change how beautiful things in our homes are made by creating bio-circular products with the lowest possible carbon footprint. It’s bio because we develop and launch biobased products; it’s circular because we apply design-for-recycling and guarantee product-to-product recyclability. In this way, Arapaha creates a lifestyle in balance with our planet. Within my role at the company as a circular product developer, I focus on the development of our bio-circular textile products.
Arapaha is involved in two aspects of the T-REX Project: digitizing the textile supply chain and creating design guidelines to improve recyclability. For the first, we are mapping out what the data needs are within the recycling industry. For the latter, we are developing technical design guidance to improve the textile-to-textile recyclability of clothing. Within our role, we thus support the stakeholders directly involved in recycling to receive feedstock that meets their needs in terms of material and data quality.
At present, we only manage to recycle 2% of our textile waste in the EU back into textiles. This is not only because technologies and business models within sorting, pre-processing and recycling need to be further developed. A lot of the non-reusable clothes are also made in such a way that they are almost impossible to recycle, even with the most advanced technologies. The challenge will thus not only be to develop the processes directly involved in recycling, but also to change how we design our garments to make them recyclable.
We also see that the textile waste supply chain is quite fragmented. The combination that the fashion industry is not a digital industry and that a lot of technologies are still in their infancy, has resulted in a lack of data communication between stakeholders. It is key to build a digital infrastructure that supports data needs within textile waste management.
All the innovations at collecting, sorting, pre-processing and recycling level show that there is a promising future for textile-to-textile recycling. Complimented by the upcoming regulations from the EU, this will be a big opportunity to push textile-to-textile recycling to the next level in its development. These regulations will increase the quality of textile feedstock by setting measures on designing for recyclability, traceability and textile collection. On the other hand, it will create more demand when introducing minimal recycled content measures.
In 2050, the textile industry will have a more circular character, and textile-to-textile recycling will be scaled. In the ideal circular textile value chain, we will produce less, as that is still the most effective way to reduce impact. We will design our garments in such a way that they are not only recyclable, but also durable and have a low environmental impact. Consumers will use and re-use their clothes for a longer time, also using resale and rental platforms to keep clothing in circulation for longer. When disposed of, the textiles will be recycled back into textiles that can be used in their next lifecycle.
