Across a three-year period, the T-REX Project collected and sorted household textile waste and demonstrated the full recycling process of polyester, polyamide 6, and cellulosic materials from textile waste into new garments. Simultaneously, the Project aimed to demonstrate sustainable and economically feasible business models for each actor along the value chain, conducted lifecycle analysis of the circular process, integrated digital tools that streamline the process of closed loop textile recycling, and produced circular design guidelines. The T-REX Project published a blueprint which included reports, white papers and guidelines. Some of the learnings from the project are: on technical scalability, sorting efficiency is currently low. Manual sorting, which is still the primary method, remains inefficient and costly. Automation could improve the quality and purity of feedstock available for recyclers. Pre-processing is a critical step in the recycling value chain, with direct impact on the recyclability and quality of the final product. From the LCA, textile recycling has strong potential to reduce the environmental impacts associated with fiber production. However, the magnitude of these benefits depends heavily on both the type of material being recycled and the specific recycling technology used. One of the main contributors to environmental impact typically arises from the most energy-intensive stages of the process. This highlights the importance of improving energy efficiency and sourcing low-impact energy. On the design side, the T-REX project delivered a technical guidance for T2T Recyclability based on the 3 technologies participating in the project. Tests were done to validate materials that can be accepted from these recyclers. From the citizens engagement area, we learned that there is need for ongoing support, accessible resources, and follow-up opportunities. Finally, some learnings on data are to further standardize an interoperable data model within the textile recycling value chain that supports the involved economic stakeholder in their activities. Develop a data system in the textile recycling value chain that aligns the data captured by the data model with material flows in the real world. Improve Primary Data Collection. It is recommended that provisions exist within the stakeholder ecosystem to encourage the sharing of necessary datapoints to collaboratively advance the industry.
