T-REX Project has concluded
After three years of collaboration, innovation, and shared ambition, the T-REX Project has officially concluded.
As Product Manager at Infinited Fiber Company, I oversee the product and textile supply chain and collaborate with brands supporting them in integrating Infinna™ into their product portfolio. I also work around product certifications, traceability and LCA topics.
In the T-REX Project, Infinited Fiber Company demonstrates the post-consumer cotton waste recycling into new virgin quality textile fibres (Infinna™) suitable for further processing. We collaborate with sorters, providing feedback to help evaluate waste and optimize processes. Additionally, we contribute to the development of design guidelines for circular products.
The biggest challenge is transforming the current linear value chain into a circular one while ensuring commercial viability. Developing scalable practices that can be implemented across the industry is key to overcoming this challenge, with a particular focus on efficient collection and sorting of textile waste to provide high-quality feedstock for recyclers.
A big opportunity within textile-to-textile recycling lies in the emerging regulatory landscape and technological advancements, which together are driving transformation across the industry. Initiatives like Digital Product Passports and enhanced traceability systems will provide consumers with valuable insights into a product’s sustainability credentials, origin, and lifecycle. These developments empower consumers to make more conscious purchasing decisions, fostering greater demand for recycled and sustainable materials. At the same time, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) that directs towards circular design principles, as well as the regulations around product end-of-life and waste management, encourage the adoption of circular practices industry-wide. With regulatory support, all industry players will have the incentive and framework to invest in sustainable textile recycling technologies and processes. This confluence of regulatory momentum, consumer awareness, and technological innovations presents a great opportunity for scaling textile-to-textile recycling and creating a more circular, sustainable fashion industry.
By 2050, I envision a value chain where textile waste is efficiently converted into new textile fibers at scale. With the right infrastructure and textile-to-textile recycling technologies, we can significantly increase the percentage of waste that is recycled (currently <2%), making the industry much more sustainable.
