While the production and consumption of textile products continue to grow, so does the impact on the environment caused by a lack of reuse, repair and recycle of materials. Quality, durability, and recyclability are often not being set as priorities in the design and manufacturing of garments (EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, March 2022).

CISUTAC aims to remove current bottlenecks in order to increase textile circularity in Europe. The objective is to minimise the sector’s total environmental impact by developing new, sustainable and integrated large-scale European value chains.

The project will include most parts of the textile sector: comprising the 2 groups of fibres that represent almost 90% of all textile fibres (polyester and cotton/cellulose), and focusing on products from 3 sub-sectors experiencing most circularity bottlenecks (fashion garments, sports and outdoor goods, and workwear).

CISUTAC will follow an holistic approach covering the technical, sectoral and socio-economic aspects, and will perform 3 pilot phases to demonstrate the feasibility and value of:

• Repair and disassembling
  

• Sorting (for reuse and recycling)
  

• Circular garments through fibre-to-fibre recycling and design for circularity
  

To realise these pilots, the consortium partners will:

• Develop semi-automated workstations
  

• Analyse infrastructure and material flows
  

• Digitally enhance sorting operations (for reuse and recycling)
  

• Raise awareness among consumers and the textile industry