• EU-funded project reaches turning point in solution development about masterplan for optimized cycling of discarded textiles
• tExtended solutions to be soon tested on Europe-wide level and replication potential to be studied regionally
• Activities will also involve local community actors in the development and improvement of its blueprint

The focus on finding solutions to solve the growing issue of textile waste is growing at both European and global level. The EU-funded project tExtended is spearheading innovation in this area with the development of a blueprint, a knowledge-based masterplan to develop and demonstrate effective textile recovery, reuse, waste valorisation, and recycling processes.

After two years of extensive research, tExtended is now entering the second phase of work, where the project continues developing its Conceptual Framework, a knowledge-based solution that targets the retention of quality. tExtended is also preparing for testing it in an Industrial-Urban symbiosis collaborative real scale demonstrator, with the goal of showing its potential to reduce textile waste by 80%.

“We look forward to bringing our work about designing a blueprint to the next step. The textile sector is still lacking technologies and infrastructures that can effectively support the shift to a circular model, and we believe that our solutions will strengthen competitiveness and resilience through sustainability and digitalization, while also generating new business,” says tExtended Project Coordinator, Dr. Pirjo Heikkilä from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

These project activities will take place in different formats in all the countries of the tExtended consortium, including Finland, Sweden, Belgium, France, Ireland, Latvia, Slovakia, Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland. The real scale demonstrator will be carried out in wide collaboration on European level, but tExtended will also realize localized regional studies for the evaluation of the replication potential.

The four-year project, funded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, also focuses now on the social aspect of the textile sector by involving local community actors in the project activities. Through citizens’ participation in different actions on pre-sorting and returning of used textiles, tExtended will raise their awareness about the sustainability and circularity of textiles.

The road towards the development of the tExtended masterplan for a sustainable textile ecosystem has already brought the project to reach relevant successes. Especially, the results obtained about improving upcycling processes and in designing a future data-driven circular ecosystem will influence the upcoming work towards the tExtended goals.

To read more information on the improvement of upcycling processes, please visit our website: tExtended reaches milestone on future data-driven circular ecosystem

To read our report on Redesigning Value Chains, please visit: https://textended.eu/downloads/

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No.101091575.

Contact

Dr. Pirjo Heikkilä, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.
Principal Scientist & Project Manager
E-Mail: Pirjo.Heikkila@vtt.fi.

Author

Claudia Esposito

» Author: Marion Kupfer

» Publication Date: 21/01/2025

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