The production and consumption of textile products continues to increase, along with their impact on the environment. The textile industry accounts for around 10% of global carbon emissions and currently lacks large-scale options for reuse, repair and recycling of materials. Quality, durability and recyclability are rarely prioritized, either in the design or production phase.

CISUTAC aims to remove current bottlenecks to increase textile circularity in Europe. The aim is to minimize the overall environmental impact of the industry by developing sustainable, innovative and inclusive large-scale European value chains.

CISUTAC covers a significant part of the textile sector and shows how to close loops at product and material level. Short closing loops will be developed in 3 pilot projects, by:

• work with two material groups that represent almost 90 percent of all textile fibers

• focus on products from three subcategories that have different bottlenecks when it comes to circularity

CISUTAC works from a holistic perspective and will include technical, sectoral and socio-economic aspects. During the project, three pilot projects will be carried out to demonstrate the implementation and value of.

• Repair and dismantling
• Sorting (for reuse and recycling)
• Circular garments through fiber-to-fiber recycling and design for circularity

Objectives of the project

CISUTAC aims to remove current bottlenecks to increase textile circularity in Europe. The aim is to minimize the overall environmental impact of the industry by developing sustainable, innovative and inclusive large-scale European value chains.

What is the role of Wargön Innovation?

Wargön Innovation is project managing the part of CISUTAC that focuses on the development of the technical aspects. This includes leading the development and construction of a semi-automatic workstation for the repair and dismantling of textiles. It also involves developing pre-treatment techniques to enable textile-textile recycling of cotton and polyester from used materials.

In addition, Wargön Innovation will, together with partners, develop a decision support tool, DST, mainly for use in the sorting of textiles for reuse. The tool will be based on AI technology and mechanical learning.