Circular.Tèxtils.Cat is a new project started this month with the goal of giving a new life to the waste generated by the advanced textile materials’ sector in Catalonia by developing new sustainable products and promoting circular economy The project is being implemented by AEI Tèxtils and Fundació FITEX -Private Foundation for Textile Innovation- with the financial support of the Waste Agency of Catalonia.
Circular.Tèxtils.Cat will develop a marketplace of advanced textile materials waste that will be featured online (as virtual marketplace) and physical (with samples and information sheets). The main goal is to facilitate identification of side-products by fashion and textile companies in order to upcycle them into high added value products.
As a demonstration of the marketplace potential for circularity, both entities will organize an innovation hackathon with students from the materials engineering department of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and ELISAVA, Faculty of Design and Engineering from Universitat de Vic – Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic-UCC), together with designers and members of Catalan companies in the fashion sector in order to develop products and circular business ideas with this waste. Participants will be given the challenge to design and create a new product with samples from the marketplace within a short timeframe that will lead to circular showcases. The project will assess the business viability of the proposed solutions and concepts to facilitate and accelerate their market launch boosting circularity in the textile sector.
The marketplace is envisioned as a long-term collaboration beyond the project duration with the commitment of expanding the waste products in the catalogue with new samples and facilitating the contacts between companies from various sectors.
This initiative will result on an improvement for the advanced textile materials’ sector in Catalonia, mainly formed by SMEs, since new opportunities will be generated to contribute to the reduction of the environmental impact in the sector. Likewise, it will also have a positive impact on fashion and home-textiles’ companies since they will have access to sustainable raw materials with high added value and with technical properties. This project is aimed at structuring the textile and fashion industry towards a circular production model and seeks to facilitate the green transition of SMEs in the sector.
