Kick-off of the European project REGIOGREENTEX
Brussels, 21 February 2023 — Today, 43 project partners RegioGreenTex came together in Brussels to launch a three-years project that should change the way we manage textile recycling.
Regions for Green Textiles — known as RegioGreenTex — is a fourfold helix partnership initiative aimed at mapping and reducing the difficulties that currently exist in implementing a circular economy model within the textile ecosystem across the EU.
RegioGreenTex will support concrete solutions at the level of SMEs, where textile waste becomes a value. The project will contribute to maintaining and developing jobs in the EU textile sector, relocating production to Europe and making the EU textile value chain more competitive and resilient. It will contribute to the goals of the EU Green Deal in terms of reducing the carbon footprint, energy and water consumption.
Led by EURATEX, the project brings together 43 partners from 11 European regions, with 24 SMEs that are pioneers of innovative solutions to recycle textile waste. Together, SMEs cover different segments of the circular textile value chain (sorting, recycling fiber materials, removing contaminants, transforming recycled fibers into new textile materials) and provide concrete solutions to bottlenecks in the EU value chain, but also seize market opportunities. The project will also promote the development of 5 regional REhubs in some of the most important textile regions in the EU.
RegioGreenTex is supported by the European Commission through the interregional innovation investment instrument — I3, and will be coordinated by the European Innovation Council and the SME Executive Agency (EISMEA).
Under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), instrument I3 aims to support interregional innovation projects in their marketing and scale-up phases by giving them the necessary tools to bring their project up to the level of investment. This instrument aims to strengthen economic cohesion in the EU by helping businesses work with innovation players in other regions.
Dirk Vantyghem, CEO of EURATEX, welcomes the project:” RegioGreenTex will support our businesses in this transition to a new sustainable business model. We are happy to have 24 SMEs involved, who will benefit directly from the action. The project should also mobilise regional authorities to engage in the recycling of textile waste, which can give new impetus to the textile industry as a whole.”
Raouf Medimagh, CTO of Recyc'Elit:”We are very happy to be part of this project and to contribute our innovative recycling and chemical separation technology to tackle the problems of polyester-based multi-material post-consumer textiles. We are delighted to contribute to building a European value chain and to bring our technology to the market thanks to this project and our partners..”
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