Fashion for Good launches FAE project to bridge textile recycling gap

Sustainability platform Fashion for Good is launching a new project, FAE (Feedstock Activation Europe), to address the missing link in textile recycling: sorting and pre-processing infrastructure. The organisation announced the news in a press release.

The initiative, supported by major players such as Adidas, Bestseller and Inditex, aims to ensure that post-consumer textiles can be used on a large scale as feedstock for new textile fibres. Partners from the Benelux region are also participating in the project, including sorters Boer Group and Sympany, and technology innovator Cure Technology.

FAE is a response to the economic gap between sorters and recyclers. Currently, the vast majority of collected textiles unsuitable for the second-hand fashion market is incinerated or sent to landfill. The problem is not the technology. According to Fashion for Good, there are sufficient mechanical and chemical recycling companies, but the issue lies in the preceding step. There is a lack of cost-effective methods to remove zips, buttons and synthetic fibres from clothing and to separate the synthetic fibres. This is a necessary step for high-quality sustainability in the textile chain.

Project FAE focuses on testing fibre separation techniques and designing regional “hubs”. These sorting and pre-processing centres in Europe are intended to reduce processing costs per product through automation. With this, the organisation aims to create a commercially viable model that responds to the EU's Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation, which holds fashion brands financially responsible for the phase in which clothing becomes waste.

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

OR CONTINUE WITH

Fashion For Good

Recycling