Reju and Nouvelles Fibres Textiles Collaborate on Textile Waste Circular Ecosystem in France

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Nov 25, 2024, 08:43 ET

PARIS, Nov. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Reju™, the progressive textile-to-textile regeneration company, and Nouvelles Fibres Textiles (NFT), a French company specialising in the recovery of end-of-life textiles, today announced a collaboration on the sourcing and recycling of textile waste to support the building of a circular ecosystem in France. NFT will supply secondary raw materials derived from used or unused waste textiles to Reju for recycling and production of regenerated Reju Polyester™.

Reju and NFT will collaborate to expand the collection and processing infrastructure for apparel and textile wastes from post-consumer and post-industrial sources. The collaboration will also allow for an open supply chain and guarantee 100% traceability of recycled materials.

Reju is developing the infrastructure to take textile waste and regenerate it at scale, starting with polyester. The end product – Reju Polyester™ – is expected to have a 50% lower carbon footprint than virgin polyester and can be regenerated infinitely. Reju's first demonstration plant – Regeneration Hub Zero – is now operational in Frankfurt, Germany, and will come on line to enable the production of Reju PET in 2025.

Materials supplied by NFT will be processed at Reju's new Regeneration Hub Zero in Frankfurt, Germany and the future Reju Regeneration Hubs in Europe.

NFT and its partners opened a unique semi-industrial site and research center for textile recycling in November 2023. The pilot line is the first to combine Pellenc ST's automated sorting technologies with Andritz' tearing lines to process high volumes of post-industrial and post-consumer textile waste, eliminate hard points, and turn them into industrial grade fiber and raw material feedstock for new recycling technologies like Reju. NFT also provides secondary raw materials to various industries including non-wovens, insulation, composites, plastics, and other textiles.

Patrik Frisk, CEO of Reju: "Reju and Nouvelles Fibres Textiles are using innovation and collaboration to accelerate the transition to a circular textile ecosystem. This valuable partnership demonstrates our collective commitment to addressing the problem of textile waste and developing new ways to use the resources we have within local supply chains. With the collection of textile waste mandatory in the European Union starting in 2025*, it is imperative we have scalable systems and partnerships to process what is collected and keep it from landfills or incineration. Together, Reju and NFT are building the technology and infrastructure to regenerate and reuse materials across industries and change the way we use our resources."

Eric Boël and Etienne Wiroth, Co-directors of Nouvelles Fibres Textiles: "After 6 years of research and collaborative work, Nouvelles Fibres Textiles is now ready to collaborate with professionals who need to recycle their textiles. We have an innovative turnkey solution that transforms heterogeneous end-of-life textile streams into high-quality homogeneous raw materials while ensuring their traceability. Our partnership with Reju paves the way for the permindustry: a circular, more local, less carbon-intensive, and more collaborative industry—essentially, an industry that does good!"

*Read more about the European Union's Waste Framework Directive (WFD) here.

About Reju
Reju is a materials regeneration company focused on creating innovative solutions for recycling polyester textiles and PET waste. Owned by Technip Energies and utilizing technology originating with IBM research, Reju aims to establish a global textile recycling circular ecosystem to address PET plastic found in textiles. Learn more at https://www.reju.com/.

About NFT
Tissages de Charlieu Groupe and Synergies TLC have partnered to create Nouvelles Fibres Textiles: the first industrial infrastructure deploying ANDRITZ's automated sorting and textile recycling solutions, incorporating sorting technologies from Pellenc ST. It is capable of automatically sorting clothing by composition and color and can also remove hard points and pre-fray garments. At the end of the line, Nouvelles Fibres Textiles produces a secondary raw material designed for industries that use textile fiber (e.g., shredding/spinning, non-wovens, composite materials, etc.). Together with our partners, ANDRITZ and Pellenc ST, and all our clients, we conduct real-world productions and applied industrial research to address the challenges of valorization and supply chain sustainability. Nouvelles Fibres Textiles is already laying the foundations for a second material preparation plant scheduled for 2026, which will have an annual capacity of 20 to 30 thousand tons of post-consumer textiles and will create around thirty direct jobs.

The creation of Nouvelles Fibres Textiles represents a major advance in reducing the carbon footprint of the textile sector. Automated sorting was the last missing piece of a French circular economy loop, paving the way for a complete ecosystem that brings together brands, social and solidarity economy actors, collectors-sorters, and industrial players from various sectors, all united to serve consumers seeking more traceability and meaning in their donations and purchases.

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