tExtended reaches milestone on upcycling processes implemented on a pilot scale
At the end of August 2025, in tExtended we have reached our fifth milestone, a significant stage in the development of the project solutions.
In tExtended, part of our work focuses on the development of processes for pre-processing and valorisation of recovered textile waste material to improve its quality and increase its value. Our efforts are also contributing to the development of processes and technologies that will enable high quality application, and utilization of textile waste fractions that are currently missing economically viable and sustainable recycling technologies. The success obtained in reaching this milestone will support our upcoming work in planning and implementing our real-scale demonstrators.
At this stage of the project, thirty-three months after its start, tExtended partners were expected to demonstrate three upcycling processes on a pilot scale. We have been instead able to demonstrate four upcycling processes.
1) Production of a textile yarn (mixture of Organic Cotton + Recycled Cotton)
Textile waste has been obtained by manual sorting the material and cutting out hard components or by sorting the textile waste automatically subjected to Purfi’s rejuvenation process with soft mechanical recycling. J. F. Almeida is developing a new open-end spun yarn that blends organic cotton fibres with two distinct batches of recycled cotton fibres supplied by Purfi, and Utexbel has also been trialling the same Purfi-derived fibres to spin yarns (Fig 1), further showcasing the material’s versatility.
The study conducted on the processes by RISE on the environmental impact confirmed that Purfi’s soft mechanical recycling demonstrates clear sustainability advantages, including significant savings in water, energy, CO₂ emissions, and land use.
2) Mechanical recycling of post-consumer textiles and manufacturing of yarns and workwear
Lindström and Rester have been making significant progress in turning post-consumer garments into new, high-quality yarns and fabrics, focusing on transforming used textiles into fresh materials for woven fabrics. The yarn produced showed greater regularity and durability, while the woven fabric demonstrated fewer defects and better satisfactory appearance. The tests showed that recycled fibres can achieve performance levels much closer to traditional virgin fibres, and the positive results also signal a real opportunity to embed textile-to-textile recycling into production of technical textiles.
3) Processing of polyester fleece material and post-industrial textiles
At the VTT laboratories in Tampere, tExtended can use facilities that can revolutionize the handling of synthetic and mixed composition textile waste.
VTT can process fluffy textile waste, like a fleece jacket in this case, without shredding it first, and turned into granulates. The granulates obtained from polyester monomaterial textile waste can be turned into new fibres for textile industry, and more heterogenous and mixed textile waste can be used to produce composite products.
4) Hyperspectral imaging for non-invasive identification of textile composition
VTT has conducted textile waste identification pilot study with Rester, to test hyperspectral imaging as a tool estimate (see Fig 2) how composition of polyester-cotton textile changes during use and laundering. The study was carried out using 30 hospital workwear samples whose original composition (65/35% PES/CO) and amount of laundry cycles were known.
Chemical analysis demonstrated that wear and washing do thus clearly change the composition, and in almost all the cases cotton degrades faster than polyester. It was also shown that a model based on near-infrared hyperspectral data provided accurate estimation of composition, while accuracy of estimation based on laundering cycles was poor.
You can read the full article here:
Sormunen, T., Mahlamäki, E., Mäkelä, S.-M., & Mäkelä, M. (2025). Hyperspectral imaging quantifies blend composition change in workwear textiles. Resources, Conservation & Recycling Advances, 200282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcradv.2025.200282
All four processes will be more extensively described in an upcoming article on our website; however, for any enquiries about further information on the processes described in this article, you can already contact Claudia Esposito, Senior EU Project Manager, at: cesposito@carrcommunications.ie
