Hello and Welcome
Hello and welcome to the second issue of the #tExtended newsletter.
This newsletter is published on LinkedIn every six months. It aims to share an overview of project developments, events and news, and give information on the next steps we are about to take.
This newsletter marks one year since the start of the project activities; below are the tExtended project highlights in the last six months.
tExtended has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No.101091575.
What’s new with tExtended?
Milestone 2 on upcycling processes reached
One year after the start of the activities #tExtended has reached the Milestone 2, a significant stage in the development of the project solutions, defined as Proof-of-concept for novel waste valorisation and recycling processes.
At this stage of the project, tExtended partners have been instead able to demonstrate six lab scale processes for waste valorisation and recycling, including two waste valorisation processes, two polymer level recycling methods, and two methods going to monomer level into fibre raw materials structure.
tExtended 12M meeting in Spain
In November 2023 tExtended project partners have met at AIMPLAS · Instituto Tecnológico del Plástico premises in Spain for the third meeting in person. Here, the partners had the chance to give a detailed overview of the project’s developments after one year of work and discussed plans for the upcoming months. The partners have also been invited to visit the laboratories at AIMPLAS.
Interviews
During the previous meetings, various tExtended partners have been asked about their work in the project and their future expectations. You can now find the interviews recorded on our YouTube channel:
- Mariana Gomes, from Têxteis J. F. Almeida
- Diego Peñaloza, Anna Peterson, and Stina Björquist, from RISE
- Jimmy Klintenberg, from Tekologistik (Greenway Logistics)
- Jean-Luc Derycke, from Utexbel
- Anna Garton, from Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto Oy (LSJH)
- Dace Akule, from Green Liberty
- Ellen De Craemer, from De Kringloopwinkel
Keep following our social media channels: in the next weeks we will publish more interviews with tExtended project partners.
While in Portugal for the second meeting, the tExtended partners have been invited to visit the premises of two project partners, J. F. Almeida and MTEX NS. On our YouTube channel you can find videos of the visits:
Participation
tExtended partners have attended several events in the last months:
- EuroNanoForum in Lund, Sweden
- Desafios e Caminhos para 2030 in Porto, Portugal
- Processes4Planet Partnership Forum in Brussels, Belgium
Networking
tExtended is active in ECOSYSTEX, the European Community of Practice for a Sustainable Textile Ecosystem. This summer, ECOSYSTEX published its first Input Paper that identifies the most pressing and impactful research gaps and needs to be filled to enable the green transition of the European textile ecosystem.
ECOSYSTEX has also organized its first conference in September, where various tExtended partners have attended the event.
tExtended is also active in the Processes4Planet Partnership, where our partner VTT has participated at the Forum organized in Brussels in September, and has spoken at the panel ““Making it Happen”: How to accelerate the Progress To Large-Scale Deployment And Breakthrough Innovation?”.
Initiatives
We have been active as well in raising awareness about recycling and reuse initiatives:
- Second Hand September, a campaign that promotes donating, reusing, re-wearing and restyling your clothes during September and beyond.
- World Circular Textiles Day, that has been launched to celebrate the efforts of a growing community of companies, organisations and individuals actively working towards a circular textiles future.
- European Week for Waste Reduction, the biggest campaign to raise awareness about waste prevention in Europe that encourages all Europeans and not only to carry out awareness-raising actions about sustainable resource and waste management during a single week in November.
Events
Upcoming project events
tExtended 4th plenary meeting: May 2024, Belgium (TBC)
Other events
Waste Management Europe: 9-11 April 2024, Bergamo, Italy
Techtextil: 23-26 April 2024, Frankfurt, Germany
World Circular Economy Forum: Spring 2024 (TBC)
Circular Textile Days: 18-19 September 2024, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
Thank you for reading. We look forward to the next update – remember to subscribe to this newsletter so you won’t miss it.
-Team tExtended
