#textileresearch

Ongoing project

FilRec – Study of productive capacities of Spinning with pre- and post-consumer recycled fiber content and challenges to increase production

Textile production from recycled material is a reality marked, both by the EU and by national regulations, with a horizon of 2025-2030. The obligation to recycle textile waste places us in a scenario in which the raw material can come from pre/post-consumer recycling. But what capacity does our textile industry have to produce with recycled fiber? Currently, there are bottlenecks that are difficult to resolve, in many cases, due to the lack of information about who has the capacity to do what and with what quantities.
The project FilRec, led by Texfor – Confederation of the Textile Industry and financed by The Catalan Waste Agency – ARC, aims to carry out an exhaustive analysis of the spinning mills in Catalonia (120 companies), to know their production capacities, incorporating recycled textile material, pre/post consumption. The duration of the project is 18 months.

The results of the project will make it possible to have an online catalog of real and updated data on spinning production that will be very useful to accelerate the use of this type of product by weavers and producers, facilitating its supply. The project wants to help accelerate the transition towards a more circular textile sector.

Qualitative Objectives

  • Know the challenges of spinners to use recycled fiber and increase the production of recycled yarns fiber by fiber for different waste streams: cotton, wool, polyester and synthetic fibers.
  • Know data on productive spinning capacities with pre- and post-consumer recycled fiber content. for different waste streams in Catalonia.
  • Promote circularity and the use of recycled raw materials in the textile value chain

Quantitative Objectives

  • Get information of 30 productive spinning units of different raw materials.
  • Writing a productive capabilities report spinning with pre- and post-consumer recycled fiber content for different waste streams in Catalonia.
  • Writing a report on challenges and barriers to circularity of the spinning production units for different raw materials: Cotton, wool, polyester.
  • Dissemination days. Celebrate 3 dissemination days, 1 of Catalan scope, 1 of national scope, 1 of international scope.
  • Create a Digital Catalog with the productive capacities of the spinners to facilitate the supply of weavers and producers.

 

Representative graphic diagram of the FilRec project

 

Know the real impact to increase the use of recycled products

The study will provide preliminary data to be able to make estimates of the real impact that the data we make available may have on the increase in the use of products with recycled fiber content (spinning) and the derivatives that this fact may cause in the recycling of pre- and post-consumer waste. With FilRec It will be possible to know capabilities and challenges to know what the necessary drivers are to increase and scale post-consumer recycling capacities in Catalonia.

Currently in Catalonia there is a unique pre-consumer cotton recycling ecosystem, the leader in Europe by business volume (€375.524.000) (IDESCAT 2020) and we know that there are capacities to recycle wool and other raw materials such as polyester. There are 120 fiber preparation and wiring companies (INE 2022), which represents a unique opportunity to lead the transition in the production of recycled raw materials supported by the European waste directive and the European textile strategy (2022). To do this, it is necessary to generate low-impact products using recycled raw materials, local production supported by the industrial framework in Europe (decarbonization, low carbon and water footprint, etc.).

Thanks to this project, The necessary variables will be known to scale post-consumer recycling, the generation of textile waste will be discouraged, post-consumer textile recycling will be increased, and recycling and valorization of textile waste will be promoted to recover fibers and generate new textile products. . It is also expected to generate an impact in saving virgin raw materials with an estimated value of 14.000 tons, although it could be more if we managed to make our recycling spinners a key element in recycling waste from other autonomous communities.