Zwolle, Netherlands – Today, groundbreaking Dutch initiatives TexPlus and TEXroad announce a collaboration to digitize post-consumer textiles from collection through reuse and recycling, a critical development in circular textiles. The partnership creates a consistent data stream for the materials handled by TexPlus members to increase visibility across the consortia, simplify statistics and EPR reporting and provide transparency about what is actually happening to post-consumer textiles.
In this pilot, TexPlus partners provide a complete overview of their post-consumer textiles coming in and going out, and TEXroad develops materials flows reports for the individual companies and the whole consortium. Textiles are made visible from the exact point of collection through reuse, recycling and waste, and multiple uses for the data are demonstrated, including generating business insights and policy monitoring reports. This is a crucial next step on the road to circular textiles.
The collaboration builds on TEXroad’s work with circular textile initiatives in Sweden, Finland and Estonia. It also demonstrates the value of digitisation in the post-consumer textile sector at key moment for European policy development and the transition to a circular economy.
"At TexPlus, we are excited to collaborate with TEXroad and take a crucial step towards the future of the circular textile industry, by harnessing the power of data,” said Jan Mahy, Professor of Sustainable & Functional textiles at Saxion University and Board member of TexPlus
The Netherlands collects about 45% of their post-consumer textiles, well above the European average. The country also has more than 10% of European sorting capacity, as well as some of the most advanced sorting and recycling feedstock pre-processing capabilities in the world. However, progress toward circular textiles remains slow.
“TexPlus has significantly advanced circular textiles in the Netherlands and beyond, and the challenges they have faced highlight serious roadblocks the industry must still overcome. For example, economic incentives for domestic reuse and textile to textile recycling are not strong enough, and more visibility is needed to ensure post-consumer textiles are managed in a responsible way. Data is the common language the public and private sector need to align and solve these problems, and we are thrilled to demonstrate the possibilities with Twente Milieu, Regionaal Textielsorteercentrum Twente, Frankenhuis, SaXcell, Saxion University and Enschede Textielstad,” said Traci Kinden, Acting Director of TEXroad.
The collaboration continues through 2023, with results to be shared at the beginning of 2024.
About TexPlus:
The TexPlus Foundation is a partnership between 6 leaders in the field of circular textiles, all based in the province of Overijssel. From collection to processing and manufacturing end products; the entire value chain is represented in the foundation. The aim of the TexPlus Foundation is to connect the chain from collection to reuse. This is done by encouraging the reuse of textile products and by using innovative techniques to recycle non-reusable textile products as high-quality as possible, whereby the market is actively involved in the development and application of recycled textile materials. www.texplus.nl
About TEXroad:
TEXroad is a Dutch foundation using data as a common language to align the public and private sector, create knowledge, and develop economic incentives to scale circular textiles. We are a neutral party with a focus on improving textile management infrastructures, improving textile statistics and metrics for business and policy making and co-developing a network for B2G and B2B data exchanges. www.texroad.org
Contact: Traci Kinden (traci@texroad.org)