Touchpoint of View: Circular Textile Days
In September, part of our development department visited Netherlands at the textile circular economy fair. The fair was now held for the second time, and according to our experience, the fair is becoming a necessary event in the industry, which brings together examples and innovation from the surrounding area regarding the circular economy of textiles.
The entire value chain of the circular economy was well represented at the fair. In the textile and clothing sector the circular economy can materialize in many ways and at the same time.
At the fiber level the circular economy was seen as fiber innovations. There were fibers made from recycled recourses and fibers with the best-known qualities to be recycled with current recycling methods. The new innovations were strongly related to either plastics made from renewable natural resources or manmade cellulosic fibers.
Same thing with circular fabrics: Recycled fiber was used in the fabrics, or the fabric was manufactured with current recycling possibilities considered. The fabric finishes had been made with fewer chemicals and there were innovations in the accessories and trimmings as well, mostly affecting the raw materials or recyclability.
There were also whole circular economy value chain experiments as a great example of cooperation needed when implementing the circular economy to the businesses. The members of the EU funding project for circular workwear were represented from the workwear provider all the way to the new fabric and item made from the used workwear. Even in the two-day speeches the call to work together and look for partners was repeated in order to make the circular economy a part of everyday life and resource efficiency mindset.
What did we learn from the event
In the presentations and speeches, we got to see and hear about different companies, projects, examples, standards, future requirements and, for example, how you can avoid greenwashing in your operations and communications.
We got a lot of new ideas and an overall understanding of where our industry is going and what things we should pay attention to in the coming years, especially in terms of standards and future requirements.
It was great to see how much the whole of the Netherlands and the surrounding areas have supported circular economy operators, companies, research institutes and created social activities within the industry. There are already many operators in their circular economy chain, and everything exuded enthusiasm and courage to do and research things themselves because there are no examples and ready-made models. This reminded us of a lot of our own mentality at Touhpoint.
Thank you ’s Hertogenboch, you were good to us!
