Fashion to House: Polycotton to Panels for Household products

The scale of discarded polyester-cotton blend (polycotton) textile wastes is nearly a hundred million tons annually. Most of it is incinerated or sent to landfills. On the other hand, the household products industry uses mostly virgin plastics from fossil-based sources in hundreds of millions of tons. Recycled plastics need to be reinforced with virgin plastics to meet the required strengths and other properties. The ‘Fashion to House’ system demonstrator project envisages bridging the fashion industry and the household products industry, enabling a new recycling ecosystem wherein large volumes of a greatly engineered, visually appealing, and durable material from the former, namely polycotton textile waste, can become feedstock for products of the latter that also need to be visually appealing, stringently meeting industrial benchmarks and long-lasting under harsh conditions. The project team includes two large industrial partners, namely H&M group and Electrolux group from the supply and demand side, The Loop Factory with manufacturing expertise, Wargön Innovation with R&D experience and network in textile recycling, and RISE leading the project with the core knowhow on converting polycotton textiles into panels. RISE has expertise in sustainability analysis, policy, and regulations and owns several pilot facilities. The project team covers all aspects of a whole systems perspective needed to bring this concept into commercial production and products.

Project name: Fashion to House: Polycotton to Panels for Household products

Reference: 2024-02636

Status: Active

Call: Systemdemonstratorer

Project type: Feasibility study

Administrator: Vinnova

Project coordinators: RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB

Project partners: RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Electrolux, H&M Hennes & Mauritz, The Loop Factory, Wargön Innovation

Project leader: Abhilash Sugunan

E-mail: Abhilash.Sugunan@ri.se

Start date: 2024-10-14

End date: 2025-10-13

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