The Future of Fashion: Promoting circular economy – approaches towards a circular supply chain

Live-stream by the EMBASSY OF SWEDEN & HESSNATUR STIFTUNG on the occasion of Berlin Fashion Week.

Programme:

Moderation: Cläre Caspar

WORDS OF WELCOME
by the Embassy of Sweden and hessnatur Stiftung

KEYNOTE
– Rolf Heimann, hessnatur Stiftung: Recycling vs circular economy
– Åsa Degerman, Södra

PING PONG DISCUSSION: think innovatively and implement new business models
– Ralf Hellmann & Jan Lamme, cibutex and Susanne Nejderås, Science Park Borås

PANEL DISCUSSION: Potentials and challenges in practical implementation of circularity
– Åsa Degerman, Södra
– Prof. Stefan Schlichter, TH Augsburg
– Thomas Böschen, Texiad
– Ina Budde, circular.fashion
Moderation: Rolf Heimann, hessnatur Stiftung

Explore how circular economy practices are reshaping the textile industry. Discover innovative solutions, network with experts, and lead the way in sustainable fashion. Join us to redefine the future of fashion.

Organised by: Embassy of Sweden in Germany, hessnatur Stiftung, City of Borås
Kindly supported by: @delinatwine

So an an an ladies and gentlemen uh warmly welcome to fellus my name is Karina SII apring I’m leading the department Department of information business and culture here at the Swedish Embassy in fuset which is as you all know the common house of all five Nordic embassies and actually I want to mention

That this year we celebrate 25 years and I very much hope that we will see many of you we have a very rich and contentful program the rest of the year with a lot of seminars and events and exhibitions and so on so welcome back to

Fuset in 2024 for I also want to give the best regards from our uh fashion passionate new Ambassador vonel son who is currently out of the country H otherwise she would definitely have loved to join this important event here tonight I’m overwhelmed to see such a big audience we had so many people

Signed up so we even prepared for some streaming services outside not being able to accommodate everybody and I really want to wish you all wel welcome also the viewers on YouTube because we of course as modern and digital as we are we do have a hybrid event uh for

More than a decade we have arranged talks on sustainable textiles and fashion here in fell suet and always starting at the very Eve of the Berlin Fashion Week and since 2016 we have organized these events together with our wonderful colleagues from h and from the city of B and we are so

Tremendously happy to have this dream team on board uh so heartfelt thanks to uh I mean all of you the Rolf uh Ana mik yonas all the colleagues and so forth and we have also seen this this family growing more and more International uh with new members from more different

Countries joining uh these series uh I want to mention that Sweden as of the 1st of January 202 before we took over the presidency in the Nordic Council of ministers with a slogan uh you may remember that one because we also used it for the EU presidency last

Year that we want to see a safer Greener and Freer Nordic region and that vision of the Nordic region to be the world’s most integrated and sustainable region by 2030 is going to shape our presidency as you know the green transition has been uh Central to Sweden for a very

Long time and therefore it also been the core of many many activities that we have in the embassy because we know that the green transition is not just necessary it is existential um but reducing uh carbon Footprints and green gas emissions while parallell fast forwarding sustainability and circularity it’s not one country

Show and it’s not just a Nordic show it’s about collaboration it’s about partnership with all possible where all possible stakeholders have to join forces and we need to move fast uh some people may say that it’s already too late but Humanity has done it before we have found Solutions which nobody could

Dream about in their wildest imagination so we can Pioneer the possible I would say we must Pioneer the possible and in this context events like this here tonight are where we underline the importance of combining Innovation businesses andain sustainability is of course of great importance and in our

Series of the future of fashion we have covered Milestones uh in a way uh on on the way of how the fashion industry is becoming more sustainable and responsible we all know that that the fashion industry accounts for around 10% of all the green gas uh Global greenhouse gas emissions and we are

Painfully aware we talked about this a lot last year about the millions of tons of waste that is generated annually uh as I said we touched upon this uh specific topic last year and it’s very encouraging to see that indeed the European uh front is moving uh it’s

Taking action and that the new waste directive is going to prescribe all the new all member states to by the 1st of January 2025 next year that everybody must collect uh separately textiles from other waste and these are of course huge volumes of textiles that will be

Collected they will need to be managed uh by both suppliers and consumers the entire value chain uh uh has to take part and will have great responsibility to act the focus tonight is promoting circular economy approaches in ways towards a circle supply chain and we have the privilege to learn from Fashion

Experts and represent Representatives as well from Germany and from Sweden from institutions from Brands where we can exchange best practices and Lessons Learned and after the many exchanges in this Auditorium we will continue the conversation upstairs at a small reception and I wish you a thought Prov content and action catalyzing event for

Tonight thank you very much and now it’s my big pleasure to give the floor to yunas vman from the business trade promoter from the city of BOS thank you very much Karina it’s always this response um thank you yunas vrm acting manager the city of BOS in

Sweden uh it’s with great humility and a sense of urgency we the city of BOS Hur the Swedish Embassy here in Berlin have the privilege today as organizers to address a theme of significant global importance the central focus of our event is nothing less than the promotion of a circular economy and

The paths leading us towards a circular supply chain this issue transends National borders and carries the weight of global responsibility our efforts to promote the circular economy and embody a sustainable supply chain are not merely local concerns but actions that position the city of BOS in the international

Context it’s high time for us to reflect on how our decisions and approaches not only impact our city but also contribute to the global sustainability agenda that we all share let us together explore the significance of this issue and The crucial steps we need to take to be Pioneers in a world where

Sustainability is the key to a brighter future I’m looking forward for this afternoon and again welcome all of you to this event thank you yeah thank you Kina in the meanwhile it feels a little bit like a living room to come here to be honest uh future of

Fashion uh my name is R Heyman and uh yeah I I will welcome you all uh one more time let me say future of fashion and and Jonas when you talk about the importance uh future of fashion means in the and we have have to talk about not

The the beauty like uh the fashion but uh the dirty but waste but then we say uh in the end of the day maybe we say no waste is not uh the dirty and and so on so let’s see for me um this uh future of

Fashion is is a is a very important platform uh we in the past we got so many many uh so much impulses last year you remember we were talking about regulations then before we were talking about Innovations and and this year is so important of course to to talk about

Secularity and um I’m really looking forward uh uh for having very interesting and fruitful dialogues and in in this room krina so that is a little bit different from my living room but it is it’s it’s a nice room in case of here we have a chance to to speak

Together and that is what we had uh over the years so later on we will have a panel discussion and of course that will give you the chance to come with us in a in a dialogue so let’s uh get together later on we will have the the option for

For a little bit networking with a good glass of wine and some good finger food isn’t it and what I’m looking for is for getting new ideas uh motivations for all of us and uh to to talk about not only about regulations but talking about potentials

So that is what I have in mind and and welcome you all and and let’s have a good very interesting journey together I will introduce you to uh Clara Kasper she is a graduate fashion designer I I know her for many many years um uh

Because she is a a Founder uh of blowout a fashion label uh well known here in Berlin and uh a co-founder founder of platter this is a very yeah interesting platform here in in Berlin and yeah one more uh CL you are um a freelancing uh for the University uh HMV hartv sorry

Hartv and uh yeah and you’re working together with our Institute and uh yeah CLA will will guide us uh uh through this event this evening thank you thank you for the introduction W I will come over here I’m a bit aside so very warm welcome from me too I’m very much

Looking forward to guiding you through the conference as your stage host and let me just briefly point out some important information you already learned that the fashion of future unfolds across two areas the first part where we listen and discuss takes place here in the embassy Auditorium and the

Second part serves as an intensive exchange between all of us upstairs in the exhibition area we want to share the knowledge and the combined expertise of the invited speakers with the best possible impact in order to encourage all stakeholders beyond the conference to further exchange ideas and start implementing

The developing strategies therefore this first part here in the auditorium will be audio in video recorded and published on YouTube via the channel of the Swedish Embassy I interpret you staying in the hall as an agreement and also say a warm welcome to the audience in the live stream

Oo is this the future of fashion from the okay since we like to address the challenges of our industry with willingness to learn to engage and to listen to each other the networking reception in the second part of the evening is the focus of the conference of the conference accompanied by The

Double B player fi Caro I hope it’s pronounced right and some snacks and drinks we can deep down dive into the subject of circular economy and recycling together so if you have any questions important comments or would like to pass on knowledge during the pingpong and the panel discussions

Please make bullet points or remember them well we will have time at the end of the stage program to clarify them with each other before we now welcome some highly interesting experts from the textile industry to the panel R would you be kind enough to pick us up and introduce

Us to the topic of circular fashion and recycling processes okay yeah technique that work yeah um yeah let let’s start directly this slide everybody knows uh don’t worry we we do not go further with boring this information uh we have it but the next uh point is could be

Interesting to clear up maybe some misunderstanding because many people very often talk about uh recycling or have it in mind when they talk about cirular econom circular economy but we will see later on it’s so quite more than uh only recycling aspects and U yeah that’s what I have mind is um to

Share with you this metrix we developed uh because what we learned is um yeah some of you maybe knows that because that is the basic of our daily work this uh metrix um means this is not only pre and not only postc consumer uh recycling

This is to to to uh this is not detailed enough so when we I I do it in a very short way when we go a little bit deeper uh first Loop uh uh the idea of first Loop is uh repairing that sounds so simple but that is an an a recycling uh

Princip as well or what about reusing later I’ll give you an an example uh like leasing like second hand and all these things and and uh yeah and what about up cycling and I will discuss with you is it only up cycling or can we agree down

Cycling let’s let’s discuss it and of course and then later on we will discuss uh option technical option in case of of uh uh recycling uh products and and recycling ways chemical mechanical recycling yeah and and of course in the end Loop Number Six is uh to develop

Products uh uh uh which are yeah biotic rable compostable then in in the end of course it is a a loop as well isn’t it so this is that is very important to have in mind when we talk about uh circularity uh and but the most important thing is to start in the

Beginning is to start with the design so uh when I started my master program approximately 12 years before then directly we realized it is important to start with the design uh Ena knows my one of my Mantra when I said to the students uh you have to

Think about a shirt a skirt a bag second life but this not only this thing you have to think about monom materials and and and so many things and um so I really looking forward later for when we have the panel discussion because I invited or we invited Ena and and uh she

Will uh she is a fashion designer not only but as well and of course she she will give us some some impulses and ideas and I’m I’m sure Ena you will agree everything starts with design so uh but for today what I have in mind is uh we have to agree circular economy

Needs creativity uh that needs to be open for processes that is a typical German idea to to discuss so long then it’s perfect and then we start and I I always think we have to start before we have to to agree processes I remember in the ’90s where we developed our our

First requirements for for for for green fashion uh yeah it was a very raw uh uh uh um idea but we started and then we we put it in a learning process and so that is the why I’m always uh be open for for every idea in this Matrix um for for me

For example it is better to to to do a down cycling uh uh um uh project then do nothing you know what I mean so this is this is very important I will give you some motivation or some emotions here for example a good practice example is this mud jeans this

In in this in the second Loop for uh for second second hand is it second hand no this is this is a leing PRP and it works so super for for denim because uh in in in the process you you do every treatments washing process

Bleaching to to to uh to make them old and and why not using new one yonas is smiling as well and then do a leasing process and and all the other guys then later on in second third life they get different but very cool fashion jeans

Isn’t it so yeah that is can be an option and I think these mud jeans they’re working very successful why not repairing uh in our Institute when we work together with with uh companies uh and and uh we talk about secularity we always start with a workshop uh and we

Start with this metrix what we have before with the six loops and then it’s very often then we when we discuss the six Loop the people say ah repairing is a loop interesting we do this or I have to ask my colleague I remember we did

This uh uh so that very um many uh um companies they have the option they did it but maybe they do not have it in mind that the the awareness for this were getting lost and and here in this example Patagonia they do it in a marketing perfect way in my opinion this

Is uh um a little bit like a provocation because everybody is talking about up cycling and and later on when we discuss uh uh chemical mechanical recycling is it so important to have a t-shirt yarn n m30 in a second life is it so important to

Have an ne30 as well or can we say okay uh we we use it then for for denim for example and and in this example if you have clothes and in the second hand you crash it and and uh you make a a bag of

This for example uh a fleece bag this is is absolutely not 100% uh uh uh perfect but in my opinion is better than nothing and this is Ika and this is such a huge company and maybe this give us impulses for motivation uh for this so how to

Start this is the question the question for today as well isn’t it how to start that is um a my opinion the most important thing is communication uh what I learned in in the last years is um the the different stakeholders in in this uh uh process uh uh from the

Beginning uh uh in in this secularity later we will have some some presentation with with some interesting slides who shows us uh uh options of secularity and and but what I learned is it is so important important that uh the one has the information to the other one

Is a sorting company and and but they need the information uh uh for the next step or uh the the producer the brands what shall they do that uh life for a sorting company is quite more easier so that needs information uh at this uh different so

We there’s a lot of uh options the lot of possibility but a lot of necessary uh points we have to have in mind I give you one more example when you when you uh as a designer when you develop a rain code very often this rain code has a

Membran and and so on and and and in the end you have a bundis manest and and this vas for you can climb up uh to uh Mont Everest but this jacket is made for walking with a dog round here in in the city so why having this high performance

Every time why not making uh uh this jacket out of monu materials completely uh for example completely done by polyesters the zippers the botton as well so only to have some some ideas and and um yeah and and one of the big big problem we will discuss it of course

Today is the logistics uh I had no idea when I started with this but Logistics is a very big challenge we will see later on we have to discuss so learning from from each other uh so that is the most important thing and I I

Hope we can can start with this or go further with this today and um uh what Katarina what you said uh before is yeah the the the requirements uh the legal requirements they the the situation is totally changed so uh uh but to be honest it is so important to

Have when in the last weeks when when I discussed with the colleagues from cotex and I said wow wow wow what you did this is so you can be proud but then R you said yeah but when you see one year before it was quite in the beginning but

Uh the the situation absolutely change so the the companies they have to do and uh uh yeah some sometimes the pressure helps to to start a bit quicker so uh so that means here you can see this green deal don’t worry I don’t go in detail but uh that shows us this this

Trip is is running now now and to be honest what they do in brussell with this green deal with this all these different parts uh in in this part to be honest they do a very good job this fits together this uh talking about uh green claim directive talking about uh uh uh

Uh CSR and all these things that works together and one of the very important part of course will be secularity isn’t it so we and now we for example in Germany on the political side here in Berlin we there starts a crazy discussion two weeks before with this Le

Ding but this is so crazy to to discuss it because that is a running process it is a running process in America in Australia and we cannot say no this is too complicated we do not do it yeah we can do it maybe for 2 or 3 years and

Then we say go good night so that is that but in a positive way that’s what I have in mind is let’s let’s uh work with this in a positive way let’s uh take this like a change uh uh change uh a chance to change so that means a lot of

Options uh a lot of potential and um but finally what I want to say is for you uh the guys from the company of course we have to agree in the end it needs an individual an individual concept an individual concept for secularity for your company so that

Means what I want to say start with this Matrix analyze your your situation and then make a concept with the road map and step by step and when you have this road map uh then you can uh have key cpis key performance indicators and when you have this you can manage the

Processes so very important is step back analyze the the situation you have now analyze your potential you have and then make the concept and make this road map and then work with this and then uh it could be very fruitful that is very helpful then then you do not have crazy

Actions and there’s not any uh uh potentials like human resources uh time money and so get lost this is very important to have a concept with a road map so yeah um and once again that’s what I said before uh to come to the end let’s agree

The the uh process corre let’s agree that not everything what we this evening we will listen not everything is perfect yet but uh it has the chance and and we have to to start with this and and and we we uh yeah we give them the chance

And uh yeah that’s what I said before let’s uh work together and uh yeah thank you for this and uh uh really looking forward then uh for for the next presentation and and of course now we we will go a little bit deeper in detail CL isn’t [Applause]

It so is my microphone doing well yeah okay super yeah thanks Ro that was very inspiring um I myself I really like the picture with the six loops and to me it always reminds me on a roller coaster I myself I like roller coasters so doing a

Good roller coaster right means that the faster it goes the more fun it is and actually it can be fun to to implement sustainable policies into your business and that’s what it’s all about today as we already learned from the Swedish Embassy it’s about time we need to get

Going we shouldn’t hesitate any longer so the fun aspect of becoming more sustainable or placing your business to a loop in this circularity chain can actually be fun when it works out also I think the visualization of the various sustainability aspects in these individual Loops that interlock like

Chain links is very helping to find your individual place for your own business so now we can take a closer look to one of the loops um we learned that waste is a human invention as nature doesn’t know any waste only nutrients and resources but how exactly can fiber be

Recycled to generate new materials Innovative technology is key to renewable processes and setting the best example here talking of the recycling Loop is sudra a Swedish Forest Industry Group owned by 52,000 Forest owners working in the field of climate smart products and renewable energy so welcome

Now to OA Daman manager of the once more technique by sud where is she here is she right in front of me thank you good afternoon I will move the chair so I not will fall over um thank you uh for inviting me here um good afternoon good

Evening Berlin so exciting once more yeah that’s uh that’s a new brand That’s A New Concept uh from sadra so um I will introduce I represent 52,000 Swedish Forest owners isn’t that amazing so every second Tree South of Stockholm belongs to SRA and the forest owners these are

Families and that has been owning and inheriting the forest for many generations and they are so proud and they are so excited about the forest and I want to have this sustain sustainability all through through the cultivation of the plants but also for the finished product and the refined

Products so why does s is why what why is it connected with fashion anyone knowing what do we do with the forest when it comes to Fashion anyone who can guess Visos Visos this is Visos this is lioel from uh lensing uh Tel what I have so this is Philipa

K so I don’t know if you know that brand yeah they’ve been here they’ve been here oh yeah so now I have once more uh based Philip a clothes on me so the mission I have for once more is to make this a new standard to scale

It up for the future to connect the dots with the various stakeholders and to be very tentative towards what the customer is wanting I will talk a little bit about the challenge we have but also the opportunities and I think the opportunities is that we have a steady longlasting

Uh Mission so more than eight years we’ve been on the market with various products and we have 52,000 owners that want to invest more money uh more resources into the um a sustainable future and here we have fashion with the Visos and with the Lio cell apart from Visos we also do

Dissolving or PP paper PP that we make tissue toilet paper paper hand towels etc etc we also do saor timber and we also have Building Systems so we instead of using concrete you can actually use wood and Timber to build tall houses High houses that’s

Good so what is once more once more is actually the world’s first open Recycling system for Blended textile waste that means that we can take on both cotton and polyester and that’s great great because there’s a lot of mixed uh material out there but today the the the situation today is actually

That we sort for second hand we have been doing that for decades and that is a business model we have the the Nos and and the the social um organizations that collect textiles and they sell it for secondhand to get money to someone who needs it that is really really important and

This is where this all starts with sorting so today we sort for mainly for secondhand but tomorrow we need to do it differently we collect 2 and a half million Tex tons of textile waste today but in seven years that will be tripled into 7 and a half million tons waste and

We need to take care of that we need to find a deposit for all the textile that we collect and I’m sure that we cannot sell it on secondhand 7 and a half million tons it needs another solution so we need to design uh for circular or we need to create this

Circularity uh design for circularity to both close the gaps in terms in the in the infrastructure in the value chain but also to close the loop so close the gap in the value chain but also close the loop for the textile so this is how the new circular textile

Value chain is so we have the waste and here in Europe we have a lot of incineration but I I had a seminar this this morning or earlier today this afternoon and then there was someone from Cape Town is describing they had one 1 million tons of waste per year in

Cap Cape Town textile waste it all went to landfill we I thought that perhaps there a a progress but 1.1 million tons textile waste on landfill this is where we come in as a chemical recycler if it cannot be reused uh upcycled repaired or not mechanically recycled because mechanical recycling needs a more

Conform uh type of material we can do the chemical recycling but we need more Innovation here we are one of the few but we need more Innovation but what we can do is that we can close the loop for polyester and cotton uh mixed material and also mixed colors so we blend it

With the forest so right now this is 20% textile waste and 80% Birch or from the from uh from the forest and then we do dissolving wood pulp or dissolving wood textile pulp and that pulp goes into a fiber producer and here we have for instance lensing perhaps someone here from lensing

Today I saw on the invitation there were two but they not here they do the fiber uh and after the fiber you do the spinning and then you do the jarn and then you have the weaving and then you make the fabric and then you do the dying and then you come

Eventually into design and a retailer you design and just comes into a shop it’s a pretty long you know this pretty long and quite um yeah fragmented value chain and this is is what going to change in the future that if you are a brand you need to be in control of the

Value chain you need to connect the dot dots backwards uh so you need to understand each partner each dot in the value chain and start to demand for recycle content Etc and you need to follow that uh in France they have been having epr that’s extended producer responsibilities already from 2007 so

That means that they’ve been doing this for more than 15 years so perhaps you can learn a little bit from the French guys they are very quick in implementing new regulations but do they follow them I don’t know that’s the question uh but they they do every year like they do

Like the Sorting analysis so with all the textiles and garments that they collect they do this how much of wool how much of C on Etc and from 2023 uh they they saw that uh what comes in is 43% cotton and then you have 19% polyester but the big bulk of the the

Mixed material is poly coton and that’s actually what we need that we what we are aiming for to recycle and then on the left hand side you have also have some more fossil based uh fibers but you also have wool and V Etc so I think this is where what I’m

Looking at right now but also what will be the future we don’t know so this is the top secret once more process that is uh then happening down in south of Sweden in murum murum is known for two things SRA and that you have uh Salman fishing so if you pass

You pass by in one second so youve see the the the the river there is the solmons and then you have SRA that’s the big where you do the the the Timber and the pulp so today we do we take on and process coton and polyester with 20%

Recycled content we are now scaling up very exciting times so in a couple of years time we will go for 50% recycle content so it will be the majority or the 50/50 will be text their waste and 50% comes from the from our forest owner

So um it’s these Bales that’s is our end product is Pulp that goes into the fiber production we have a couple of brands that have once more collection meaning that if you look into the left you can see that it’s uh garments based on once more coming from sadra and our forest

Together with textile waste from Europe we have Philipa K uh they did a small capsule collection uh launched uh one month ago we have Jack and Jones and bestseller and we more Brands within the bestseller family is coming during the spring so stay tuned and then we have

Lindex which is a we I think it’s a Swedish company but it’s actually a Finnish company uh but they are very much based in Sweden uh uh and they last year they made a huge collection uh they um uh launched uh 1 million garments and in may they will do something very

Special with that coming from our forest together with the textile waste so we stay tuned on online uh with lindex because something nice will come I I reassure you so we are setting the target for the future and this is what I’m working with a lot how will will the future look like

When will it happen what kind of Regulation directives uh standardization needs to take place and need to happen and how can we impact and how can we come together as an industry or as partners uh so we will right now we are closing the loop for 2,000 tons of

Textile waste by 2027 2028 we will um scale it up to 50,000 tons and that’s our would tell you it’s a lot it’s 100 of 100 tracks per week F loaded with textile waste will enter mum so M will be a very busy place in Sweden so and now we’re looking into the

Waste framework directive and the eppr how can that kind of Kickstart the uh the uh the movement that needs to take place now that everyone in the value chains need to start and do something and improve the already existing system we need to have the logistics we need to have sorting

Etc and yeah last but not least get in contact with us because we would like to collaborate we would we we love Partnerships uh I mean we are an an open system meaning if you have something that you want to recycle or if you want

To buy our pulp or if you need some assistant in between uh we are here for you and we are looking for collaboration thank you thank you very much alsoa that was really impressive and you’re also really good in time so if anybody has an urgent question I

Could offer it to you have one direct answer from answer from Uso right now yes okay does cycle analysis exist for the process you do yes it’s on you go to our website as an environmental impact report 30 pages read it thank you thank you yeah

Thank you and we can discuss that later on as well and can deep dive more into the topic um as well we will hear from you more later on in the panel discussion and now I think we have quite a good idea of how mixed fiber textile waste is

Transformed into a new life cycle as a Swedish Alliance partner sudra symbolizes one Link in the chain that enables your company to close the recycling Loop another Link in the chain an alliance partner from the Netherlands is also present this evening as a collector of postc consumer textile

Waste sea Tex from Amsterdam supplies resources for circular textiles so I’m very pleased to welcome Ral Helman board of directors and Yan L CEO of cbex if you both would like to ENT the panel thank you um yeah I would like to introduce Yan Yan to you as a where’s the um maybe

You stand while you present us a little bit of cutex for everybody who doesn’t know these two people Yan L is a very successful entrepreneur in the field of industrial laundry with a strong desire for sustainability Yan you took over the industrial laundry from your parents and

Made it a big family business with an international identity and uh R Helman board of directors is a real Eco Pioneer in the field of workware and you’re not only founder of the Mex TX Academy but also shareholder of debella and uh now you two are driving the cotex Cooperative forward to a

Closed loop solution for up cycling of textiles should I take this one um you have microphones here okay maybe you could use those if it’s fine if that works out fine for you yeah okay thank you for being here um I want to uh introduce uh cutex cutex

Is stands for circularity for business uh textiles uh and I want to uh inform you that uh that we are a Cooperative so we are not a commercial company we are Cooper Cooperative founded by five uh industrial laundries and four industrial laundries and debella it’s a texti style

Manufacturer so uh this is how we started in uh 2022 um so we did some projects amongst one with soda we did some tests and it was very successful we did also a pilot in uh Pakistan to recycle on the mechanical recycling our napkins into a

Jeans uh and it was all very successful everybody was happy and then they said how Mr Lama how or Yan I mean uh how how much uh quantity do you have and then I said yeah so maybe 60 to 200 tons a year and said Ah that’s not enough and this was

Really um this really became a topic so as a singles uh company we found out that’s not not really possible to contribute alone in this circularity business um so in the meantime um uh we in two years uh we have now uh 50 members in uh eight countries and

Seven Partners so members are only textile service companies and the partners are stakeholders who can help us in this whole process uh our mission is uh changing the text industry from a linear to a circular industry I repeat basically all the other speakers already um um I think also AA uh mentioned numbers

From uh from a report of McKenzie in 2022 um and the subject was scaling uh textile recycling in Europe turning waste into value this also what we already he um and uh and my Figures were from the report was a little bit different ASA so sorry uh but it was uh um in

2020 it was 7 and a half million tons for um uh textile waste in Europe uh and uh 2030 expected uh 9 million tons so a little bit different but still it’s 20% more so all the consumption of textiles increases and increases so um so we

Thought of a solution uh how can we solve this and uh now we know this is the linear process raw materials production process then it goes to textile service companies they supply to the to the customers in the market and the customers are Hospital HS uh workware companies um hotels hotels

Hotels um and then normally end of life a lot most of the volume goes to incineration Automotive or landfill so we said okay we have to make this more circular and then we say okay we start with accumulate so uh uh volumes from multiple companies and not

Only one company so in the meantime we have 15 companies in eight countries where we uh accumulate uh volumes from the textile service industry and from there we bring it for chemical recycling for amongst others to sodra or mechanical because there’s also products we can all be mechanical recycle and

Then we have recycled materials and what we think it’s important and this is also one of our Visions for cpex that we want to go from textile to textile in our own industry so we think it’s important that the recycle materials should blend in with raw materials into the supply chain

Again so we need also partners and producers and also design thinking to make this happen um what do we do more so uh in March we will start we will launch a platform cpex exchange we uh did this together with a finish company fiia um um and that’s why we tried to bring

The volumes from the textile service companies wherever they are so we even have a have a member in USA um to the recycling and from the recycling um yeah to the production um and it’s also POS uh important that the brands who are responsible for the production of the whole supply chain

Also are activated in this process and then you come up to design thinking for example that is okay it’s our responsibility not only use raw materials but also use recycled materials in our designs and uh yeah sometimes it doesn’t look that nice but we have to start doing this and that is very

Important um yeah so basically what is important for cbchs um that we are an active Coalition of the Willing that’s what how we call ourselves it’s a coalition of the willing and it means that companies should be willing to par participate and to activate and to participate in in this whole circular uh

Model um yeah and I think it’s very important um that we can um yeah help them so basically CeX is more an activator um than um recycling it ourselves so that’s not our purpose it’s to create a stakeholder Alliance uh for for the whole industry in

Europe so what a project which we are running now is um you you have to know the system of textile service the industrial laundry process that most of the textiles workw has a chip inside so we can track it over the whole life cycle in the laundry process but what we

Are doing now we say okay we have all the informations of the product we have the product password we know the weaving process we know which chemicals are inside so let’s connect the the the um data from the production with the life cycle process and the laundry and at the

End it can be uh read in the industry in the recycling industry and they will have all the informations about the production about the chemical inputs about the W washing process that it runs maybe 50 100 times and then it goes back to the recycling process and when you

Are in the possibility or the sorter to get all the the figures immediately with the life cycle so I think it’s a perfect solution yeah okay I think you agree thank you thank you both very much um I’m also really impressed how fast you are with the subutex and we were

Talking before and um you told told me that you started actually in the covid and uh did some pilots and then already in the beginning of 2022 you started with zch so that was really fastly done impressive yeah until today we managed 500 tons since nearly one year wow yeah

So and our goal this year yeah it depends yeah 800 at least but I’m not happy with 800 so still needs to be more yeah who says thousand tonight yeah I think ASA will say that um yeah please take a seat here thank you um and uh yeah I oh thank you

Yes that’s the next one yes yes then um let us just directly welcome your ping pong talk partner a textile strategist from Sweden that’s my point sorry doesn’t matter uh suzan nerus she’s working at Science Park Bros welcome very nice that you’re here thank you for [Applause] Coming yeah suzan um you are working on a very exciting big industrial project working on a missing link actually in the Sorting process so I’m very excited what you’re going to tell us please let’s let’s have some news about that thank you so uh thank you very much for this

Invitation and very happy to be here again H I was here last year and then at that time we talked about the EU regulations and the big challenges about this but today we will talk about new possibilities so let’s change the the directions instead and uh today I will

Also uh present for you a very exciting project that we are running uh in our Science Park in the Swedish School of textiles which is actually about a system demonstrator uh but first uh before I’m going into the project details I just wanted to present to you uh the textile

Uh Hub in Sweden it’s called textile Fashion Center and uh it’s an academic Institute uh with a number of different textile organizations uh it’s in the middle of Sweden in bro it’s a old tradition textile area with a lot of hills and a big river which made actually the

Production possibilities for textile uh really uh the best so with an entrepreneurial culture and uh facilities with the with um this Old Mill we are really creating the new uh generation of the textile industry and uh in uh our uh academic Institute the science Park we are

Running a lot of different projects but very proudly we are of the government assignment uh that we received from our government 2018 so um uh Tex and fashion 2030 uh is a national platform where we are uniting companies in order to transform to a sustainable textile and

Fashion industry and uh today we have more than 200 companies in Sweden uh connected to the platform and uh we are uh building it further in the future and within the uh assignment we are working with companies in order to transform and help them to take the next step in their

Uh sustainability work but we’re also developing different tools uh in order to help uh the industry further on but also we are working with different other projects uh since we know that there is not one solution to to make this textile industry a sustainable one so we we need

To have different guidance and different new ways to do it and we have been listening here today with some examples and um for for instance we’re working with new raw materials and uh trying to see how we can replace uh cotton for instance as one of the biggest problem

Also with water consumption in the production so this is some of the ideas that we are doing uh but we are also working with projects uh collecting uh all of the new garments uh like in for instance a project called the way at West festival and I’m wearing one of the

Shirts from this um project it was from a change in the procurement system uh so it was Hospital Wares and uh clothes from the hospital that was due to this change not anymore able to use so it was 100,000 garments put aside and uh nobody

Could use them anymore so we made a new collection together with um some designer uh and previous students from the Swedish School of textiles and also with a new technique where you are able to print with a reversible print so you can take it out again and you can use it

For some other uh purpose so this was like one collection but we’re also working with different other uh kind of uh projects and um just to make a small Peak sneak peek we have a popup uh together here uh in in the reception later on so you can have a small look at

Some of the examples that we’re working on but into the uh project that I wanted to uh present to you today uh is a system demonstrator project and you can see it here it’s uh it’s like a futuristic of an industry uh in a cartoon work actually it’s um uh the the

Textile value chain is in the black uh uh which is uh in a way and scheduled in a Circ way but then the blue Parts is the system demonstrator which we are going to test in reality so together with different brands and together with municipals uh and local authorities uh

We are closing the system uh and collaborating to create this system so we are working with brands that is going to collect uh their uh collections that they have already produced and make new Collections and we are also working with different under Industries uh like the M municipals uh community that will do

Different collect systems uh and they will also uh sort material we will also build um the Sweden’s first pre-sorting facility which is one of the missing links that we have identified so before the Sorting you need to have something called pre-sorting and this is what we

Also going to build in an an industrial way here and uh we have uh different actors from all uh the way uh around the value chain which I think one of them has is also present here today with Osa and SRA and uh this is also one of the

Key success factors We Believe for this project that we are connecting all of uh the different actors through all uh the whole new value chain the new value chain that will be needed to twist and turn the linear circular linear Texel industry into a circular one so we

Really believe that we have to have all the actors represented uh in the same project and in the same uh purpose for for turning uh this industry into circular one and uh this is a sketch uh of for instance how we will test different collectives systems in uh

2025 which is already next year it’s a mandatory in Sweden uh to collect um from uh collect uh the textiles uh which is ALS also in the EU but in Sweden it will be the responsibility of the local authorities to do this uh which is uh completely new uh for them they will

Have piles of textiles from 1 of January so we are uh make this um demonstrator project uh and finding out what kind of ways and what kind of collect systems you need to have in order to get this in place and then uh we are building two tracks uh one is for

Reuse uh and to try to see how the brands can uh use the garments in three Loops so we will have Brands putting new Collections and then uh having these uh in three Loops uh before it’s going to recycling so this is the aim also for the project

Project and uh as a last picture I don’t didn’t want to bring too many pictures here today but as a last picture this is one of the concepts that we are going to test in real so this is one of the brand Concepts and um which which means that

Uh you as a brand uh you are collecting uh materials from customer customers that maybe it’s not interested to to have the the material or garment anymore and then they bring you bring it back to the same um uh brand as you bought it from and they are then making this

Process in order to make a redesign uh concept around it and and uh then they are the ones that is selling it to the next customer so it will be still in their brand name uh which we believe will be the case for many uh brand in a high level that you will

Bring uh the cloth back and you can also then see possibilities as a cons customer uh that you are getting vouchers and so to um also to encourage you to to bring the textiles to the same brand back and I think this was my last slide

So um thank you very much and what do we have thank you very much for the Inside yeah thank you very much for the interesting insights and um choose the seat if you like and I will come with you I’d also like to have some water yeah okay do you all have a microphone okay good so I’m really very much impressed by the strong efforts that cutex and

Also the Science Park B is taking and um I’m interested now what’s encouraging you to keep on to go that fast what are your drivers I don’t know who wants to start with that y um yeah the driver is for me um I think as as a entrepreneur um as

Being active in the in the business I think we created the problem ourselves so I think I should be part of the solution as well so this is the driver for me personal Drive MH and uh Yan was my my customer and 10 years ago I had a vision to to after

Talks with to to to bring a company from 100 to 100% conventional company to 100% um sustainable company and I explained him that I want to change the the the industry to a more sustainable business I explained him our cooperation with with a Indian cooperative and I said

Okay we can have a big impact on in in small older farmers in India but I need customers so he said yeah well if it sounds interesting uh let’s go and work together and so we come together and uh he was one of the the guy who changed

His business yeah also to a nearly 100% sustainable way okay thank you you want to add something no no okay uh suzan H yeah but I think that uh I mean we we all know that we cannot continue uh doing as we are doing in the textile industry today so uh we

Need to change anyhow and I think that um uh there is always a solution for everything I think only the the the way and the energy that you put in is is uh is the challenge and if you are collaborating around something and you can together create this positive

Environment in order to make the change then I think everything is possible and I think for also here we can see that um I mean for instance in Sweden the textile industry uh in the 70s everybody was very much closed doors so you didn’t invite anybody because it was uh you

Were afraid to share the design or you were afraid to do anything something like that but today people are very open to to work together and we can see in this project we can see in other project that um uh that the collaborations uh and people are very open to to see

Solutions and doing it together and and uh when you have that uh when you when you when you put uh the competitors aside and you put the the corporations on the front I think everything is possible it’s fun because I saw on the website of cutex the model circularity

Through cooperation so that’s exactly the same model but um what about the government regulations doesn’t they don’t they help as well how does it look in the Netherlands and in Sweden um what about the political will to support yeah ways to secularity yeah so so the Dutch government is really

Pushing uh so so after France they are the second uh country who implement the epr um and I think in the Netherlands they’re quite on top of this whole topic um there are many initiatives um yeah and I think on one side what we are doing is more proactive but there

Are of course a lot of reactive companies and I think legislation is needed to activate those company so I think we cannot move forward really good if if there’s no support from the government so there should be um on the other hand it’s European law epr and then it’s has to be executed

By by each country and then what we see because we have textile service companies who are active in more countries than only the Netherlands or Germany so are in multiple countries so they because of all those countries execute the the the EP in a different

Way it makes it very complex I see and um yeah in my opinion so we are more on the business part but on the fashion part um yeah it’s it’s a different way so collecting for fashion is different than in the professional textile service industry uh um and I think there should

Be more alliance between the countries how to do with this because I think that a lot of Industries have good Solutions but because of this epr it’s not so easy to execute it because they say okay we have a producer organization and they are responsible and mostly it is managed by

Fashion-minded companies or organizations from the fashion yes and Ral you know the regulations in the Netherlands well but also those in Germany so if you compare them to each other what um what helps most or what is still needed what would you say so I

Live in BO so I’m a German which is directly on the border to the Netherlands so I can see both countries in in different ways and uh the Dutch guys say act and in Germany we discuss and talk and blah blah and uh to be honest now the Liberal Party said this

Week we will refuse uh the EU supply chain act oh so I guess this story in Europe is over because I don’t know what our counselor will do but the Liberal Party say no we are against it and we W will vote against it and um after implementing the EP in the Netherlands

You can see such um Drive In in the recycling industry which I couldn’t expect one year or one half year ago when we started with cutch say okay it’s it will be a small scale organization but the first members came from of course the Netherlands and the

French countries so we get material from from the French guys and um in Germany yeah it’s still discussing discussing and nothing happened so it’s very complex for the different countries to really cooperate with each other suzan so how is the situation on the regulations in uh Sweden in Sweden I think our government

Is supporting what comes from EU I mean we are trying uh of course to to to see what kind of different uh ways how we want to have it from the Swedish part but we did uh uh produce a responsibility investigation some years ago and waited until the new

Legislations and proposals comes from the EU as we it is as it did last year so I think that we are supporting and and to see to see what comes from the EU actually but also uh now before Christmas uh the government took a decision also to um to give the the

Responsibility to the local authorities in order to collect now from the next January next year when it’s mandatory to collect textiles that will January 2025 so that will be made by the local authorities and then the municipals wow so that will be over 200 different small

Areas around uh in Sweden that we do that so that is a big wow impressive yeah so that of course really helps so we should keep that in mind that um political will is needed and supporting very much thank you very much for these really interesting insights we will have

The chance later on in the networking reception we have time for one question uh we have time for one question yes one [Laughter] question I have a question to you San please uh in your project how do you solve the problem of hygiene hygiene hygiene in in what purpose you mean you

Mean you mean for for circular how how can you allow a garment to be reused if it’s not disinfected okay yeah okay so it’s uh it’s reconed also in the process so that is something that also will be taken care of in the same process when you are redesigning the

Material and also redesigning the Garment itself so it will be inside that that um uh that Loop but of course it will be not for specific clothes that is uh for the C marking so it will not be that kind of material it will be for the fashion uh

Brands so not for the special uh areas for instance in the medical Wares so that is not where you where where you have to have a specific uh marking system and and for that kind of Reason sorry this was my question was in your slides there was one way of reusing garments yes

Redesigning yeah yes but it’s garments for being used before needs to be disinfected yes that will be done in that process in the reconing process maybe you want to come back to bed later we can do that and discuss it with her and everybody who’s specifically interested

In that joins you but thank you very much for the question because of course here as well we uh should drive attention to so thank you very much maybe I I because it’s it’s within our model it’s already clean because that’s that’s it’s not it’s a good question because that’s the big difference

Between fashion and professional Textile Services because we are collecting the waste ourself and we select the end of life after it’s clean so we don’t have any dirt so that’s already one difference between Industries yes okay thank you thank you thank you for the addition and uh yeah so thank you for the

Super super so from the strategies presented presented uh we have already learned about various approaches for a circular supply chain in order to gain a bigger overview of the current status and practice research technology and science I would like to open now the stage to our panelists and directly go over to the

Panel discussion at first I would have loved to introduce to you a German expert who combines economic activity with social commitment and ecological responsibility Thomas bers CEO of tax Aid tax Aid has its headquarters in Switzerland and branches in Germany Austria Bulgaria Hungary and USA it’s over 1,000

Employees who are involved in the professional collection sorting and recycling of used textiles but unfortunately Tomas ban became ill and cannot come tonight but maybe he is joining us at the live stream who knows yes so but nevertheless I’m personally very happy to have a representative from Berlin with us who

Also includes the design thinking aspect and who takes into account the design decisions that need to be made circular fashion is a burin based Consulting Agency for sustainable fashion welcome to co-founder and managing director Ena bud if you would like to take a seat over there yes

Pleas and uh let me place next to you someone who teaches and researches in the field of mechanical and process Engineering in textile technology for composits welcome Professor Dr Stefan Scher from the alburg University of Technology coordinator coordinator of the makers lab for recycling and artificial intelligence

Correct and also finally we have the chance to come back to also Daman from Once More by sudra you’re also taking part in the panel thank you very much and um yes go are you kind enough to do the moderation and after about three minutes uh no not three minutes 30

Minutes after about 30 minutes of conversation we will open the discussion for about a 10minute question and answer session which uh in which you can address the panelists directly okay I’m sorry yeah okay the technique runs now yeah um I want to start uh with Ena en know that’s

What I said before everything starts with uh design and and sustainable design and uh yeah maybe you can go a little bit deeper uh uh how how do you think about is and and and uh what is the need in change for example maybe you can give us some some

Examples yeah absolutely um great to be here tonight I’m very much excited to speak with all of you and you about this topic like definitely um I agree that everything starts with the design because um and it’s relevant for products as well as for systems because in the design phase obviously we take

Intention and we also unfold the potential of what a product or a system can be able to do in the sense of a circular economy so um yeah definitely we need to have a holistic approach to it not only um yeah thinking about how we can sell a product but like really

Taking the full life cycle into account and um taking decisions with safe inputs recycled inputs but also designing for longevity recyclability Etc and I think um important here is as well that we don’t yeah just not need a mindset shift but also we need definitions at hand and

Guidance at hand like in the process so I think that’s something that we really experienced a lot um I think in the past years we accompanied more than hundreds of fashion brands in this process of implementing it and I think um in the past years there were lacking

Definitions of what does it actually mean to design for circularity and so uh we created the cirular design criteria framework which really serves as um a guiding framework with concrete criteria on for product type specific material type specific on how to design for circularity and I think um yeah as said

Before a holistic approach of safe inputs recycle inputs but also designing for recyclability so we took into account uh many needs of recyclers the peers of zra Etc like what is really making a product recyclable um material compositions also disruptors to recycling and uh defining it really so I

Think that was um yeah really important for organizations to implement it and it’s exciting to see uh this coming to life in products as well yeah yeah later of course you know we will go a little bit deeper you will give us some some examples from from applied from what you

Did uh especially and and I think this very very interesting for us um Stefan your Institute is calling recycling aier that always makes me smile because that sounds so Lal but I’ve been there several times and and it is really huge and you have a lot of

Options and and uh so um give us an idea you are involved in in in uh uh experiments with mechanical Recycling and so on and yeah how is the the the current uh status yeah thank you also for the chance being here and to present something and maybe also something I

Agree on a lot of the critical remarks about German ability to do something but on the other hand we are 84 million inhabitants with the highest uh personal textile consumption not counting the technical textiles and only to give us the an idea Germany if we would recycle

Or re use all the cotton we buy we would be bigger in production than India we would be on the fourth place in the world and and what is missing in the moment is that our government is not seeing that chance I wanted to add that but now focusing what is the recycling

Aier doing is more the technical aspect and what we saw is when we analyze the recycling uh um procedure is that there is little knowledge about it and the too little exchange that was uh talked on different occasions and then we said okay how can

We do this and uh we can improve it by um bringing all the people of the different stages to one table to talk to each other but also to have a line to work with you all know if you want to build a textile mill you would need

30,000 40,000 square met not possible to do test with that so that is the idea was born to make what we call recycling atellier or a model Factory or a maker Factory we are able to make first prediction of products starting with few kilograms of material up to 50 kilg up

To 100 kg so what we are able to do is to develop products under the aspect of having um recycling uh um appli to it we concentrate at the moment on mechanical recycling due to the simple reason that mechanical recycling is available uh I agree that we need

Chemical recycling we have so many unused materials that we don’t need to come to competition of different uh methods we have uh we only have 1% fiber fiber recycling so it’s room enough to do something so we concentrate of mechanical recycling we build up this aier uh we opened it 202 20

21 and uh or two sorry I was mixing a little bit 2022 uh it’s meanwhile one and a half year we have all the complete process chain in a small model on 400 square met starting with collecting sorting recycling uh uh spinning on the one way up to yarn and fabrics and

Nonwoven on the other way so we have all these lines available we have all the machines there we start to do uh twice now since some years so the status is there we have it working a very important point is due to the fact that unfortunately our government

Doesn’t see the need for textile recycling we didn’t have the money uh German government is putting a lot of money in battery recycling plastic recycling which is good but they they are not nearly doing such a little in textile recycling it’s starts a little bit but we were under the fact

That we had nice Concepts and then we were seeing yeah how to realize it and we have a partner Network and I think that’s very important we have nearly 20 industrial companies from the whole value chain from sorting like texid for example machine building the biggest textile Machinery makers in Germany uh

Representing about 30% market share worldwide uh are members uh but also others uh and Foundations U um and this is giving us the power to do the work and that is the status we have uh of course we we didn’t just build up we already did a lot of studies and a lot

Of products yeah that was my question if if the government don’t support you need the an aliance with companies yeah yeah this is making me very optimistic because if we can get companies to invest money and of course they support us by machines by knoow but finally I

Said unfortunately my landlord is not accepting used closes as payments so I need some money and that is the reason why we get also money from these companies and it’s not a small amount it’s a reasonable uh amount not big but uh that is showing all these companies

Don’t do it because they like what we do only because they see the business perspective and that is promising and that is keeping my belief and keeping me positive that even with Germany we only should start our motor that is and you know when we start the one we have some

Power and that will change a lot and uh we are still in the process of uh discussing which motor is the best and but maybe we will start it later yeah I think in in in your lab you you have a lot of options and later on I

Want to go bit in detail because what I think is or what I said before in in the supply chain uh every company or every project is doing itself and and it it needs a little bit of moderation and I I think you have the option and later on

We have to go in detail with problems in case of Logistics in case of sorting and all these things and but uh um because we are what we said before we are here in our private living room that gives us a chance to to make a more private

Question to you also because I’m I’m I’m uh asking you for for some some insight uh from from yeah so I can imagine when when you start with it there must be a lot of problems be be before we come back to potentials and and uh is there any

Problems uh which is important for the for the other partners in the supply chains uh we we started with design that we say does this fabric that in your slide you have it as well does it really need a polyester cotton blend uh or can

You do it in in pure cotton for example some that that is an design impulse the designer needs the information what kind of or what more information do we need to to be better prepared for you is the question that what we can actually recycle or is the is it okay Or it’s better yeah it’s quite better scary that was yeah the Insight um yeah there’s many insights and we can also talk about design for circularity because it’s this is the the interesting thing it’s not until when you start to do it you realize how complex it is it’s uh I I

Tried to explain that a little bit earlier like we’re doing paper for recycling pfr for 50 years but it’s it’s paper is simple textile are complex and I think the Insight is that yeah uh I would like to invite everyone to come to my to see actually how clean and how

Pure defraction needs to be and how much detail we need to spend on for instance what kind of wrapping you have around the bail that needs to also be tested in our lab in gburg before we can accept something so it’s it’s really um complex and I really would like everyone to

Understand I mean that’s I think in the future we need to be better to understand how the E value system or value chain is working and what is needed in each part of the value chain or each step in the value chain I would say going back to my presentation I

Would say today we sort for secondhand there is no I mean cotex and Franken hose Etc yeah we have sorting it’s manually sorting and it’s mainly sort for secondhand that’s where the business model is the there’s no business model around being having to sort three four

Extra times and that’s why I mean the perception I think in the industry is that recycled content oh it’s waste you take waste it’s for free uh it then must cost I mean the the the fiber must be more um uh less expensive than than than uh than virgin because it’s waste but

It’s it’s the opposite because there is no infrastructure there’s no logistic there’s no sorting the Sorting needs to be done manually imagine if we need to I mean next year when we start to collect textile waste in Sweden we will collect 1 and a half million um pieces of

Garments every day in Sweden imagine if you have to sort that manually and that’s that’s the Insight is that it’s extremely complex so you need to get into the details in every step and design for circularity it’s not easy because if you talk to me I have a

Certain uh I mean I am we have a specific root cause for design for circularity when it comes to us we can take X Y and Z but if you start if you ask another one they say that we can design or we can recycle much more so

It’s it’s different so design for circularity is also complex it’s not so easy to say monom material uh or Etc so uh but I think it it’s a start we will we will learn and that’s why we anticipate that this change will take more than 10 years I we anticipate that

The the scaling up is within 10 to 15 years now the first 10 years we will learn how to do my question uh was wrong I was answering the the wrong question no no it’s fine it’s fine um but don’t worry I go bit deeper now um when I listen to your presentation

Also I had a question to myself okay you you you from the silos cotton you produce uh a pulp in the end good idea and but then uh you produce it for a liel production and what I learned is LEL is more complicate than the other

Visos is it is it right what I have in mind or is it was it easy to take this higher goal or uh you know what I mean oh uh but we we are in um we need collaboration and we joined forces with lensing 2021 yeah so we have an R&D

Develop uh R&D collaboration with lensing uh that are producing Tel Tel and refibra and and all that for um so we work together on that yeah it’s it’s it’s a high standard we Aiming High yeah and we aiming for extremely good quality yeah in case of their their Pro

Program then then it fits together now I understand yeah wow sorting that is a question I I would have to uh thas it’s a Pity he not here for today but uh Ena maybe you can help a little bit and Stefan as well because I’m I’m sure uh

In in your lab you’re so working on this and Ena you you have several projects uh you both together with with text eight and then uh and yeah because when when I ask Thomas what is the the the one of the biggest bottleneck yeah he said the

The the the sorting and and the the information because uh people bring back their all clothes but before when they were they they cut out the the uh the care label so they do not have any only to give an example only information what is the the material Bland something like this

Yeah absolutely and I think first of all I would love to support also what alsoa was saying that like of course design for circularity is not easy because there are multiple of recyclers out there all have different requirements so of course we need to aggregate them because as a designer we can’t just

Decide okay I’m designing for this recycling process right so that’s I think why we need Frameworks and aggregated uh recycling requirements um what we kind of translate into these design criteria um and then we can kind of design for a system like that um but

In the end in the Sorting of course we need to take a decision to what recycler to which recyc it should be directed to that it fits the best um and therefore we’re connecting basically the design stage throughout the use phase up until the Sorting stage with a data flow that

Is interconnected so information about how the product is constructed like uh what material composition is in there if there is a print and what type um if there are trim included like all those kind of information that are relevant are kind of Saved um on a product

Platform so to say we use the circularity ID for example for that um our solution um in terms of a digital product passport and with that the information can travel throughout the whole life cycle so users can access it can see where they can bring it back but

Also sorting companies can access the information and then know um maybe the brand has an own recommerce system so now the the um sorting person can see that and direct the product to the brand back or if it’s not in a reusable condition uh really sorting it for

Recycling and knowing okay perfect maybe zra or other recyclers are the perfect fit for this garment so I think that’s kind of approaches that are really important and that we highly recommend also the EU taking into account when it comes to the uh digital product passport development um we’re also very much

Engaged with that um surus for example is one EU project that we’re developing a prototype um for the DPP with um and I think yeah those approaches need to be integrated and I think yeah tech8 is a really Innovative uh organization like really also implementing and testing

Already Solutions so they have also a sorting station from us with a yeah intelligent sorting software that can access the ID information and um so I think yeah that’s a great example and um yeah Meanwhile we’re also researching on other parameters like um other types of intelligence sorting that are more

Spectroscopy or other uh Solutions so we believe in different approaches will really solve the problem together yeah yeah that is that makes me a bridge and and intelligent sorting what I learned this evening is uh this pre- sorting uh is so important and I’m sure you’re

Working on this as well yes we do and uh what we have to see is we have an increasing amount of uh material available and what we also have to take into consideration is in Germany just as a figure we collect up to 1.6 million but we sought only

400,000 so the rest is collected better don’t tell the people who put it in the uh basket because they still believe that someone poor guy in in Africa is wearing it uh this is still something we also need to to make more public what is happening with that but okay there is a

You unused um amount of material and on the other hand to come to that and 2025 the same what you have described for uh Sweden will take part in Germany we have K of vov cazs which is already decided will come to act in uh 1st of January 2025 and the responsibility is

The community the community level who have to take care of that which they don’t do at the moment and uh when we think about it just in in a reduced way we can by no way do it by sorting manually the only way to do it manually is would to ship

It back to India Bangladesh and Pakistan and that is a nonsense and it’s ecological catastrophe that doesn’t make sense so we have to learn to to sort in High wage countries like middle Europe Nordic countries and so on so the only way is to do automatic sorting and of

Course it is difficult but you see of course no one has said that recycling is easy but this is a challenge we don’t need to see it as an obstacle we need to see it as a challenge to solve it the same is multimaterial we of course we should reduce

Mon unnecessary material makes is but fashion is color and more material if we make it in the opposite we will reduce it to gray recycled uh fashion this is not what we want and it’s not that we need to accept it is possible it is a challenge it is a challenge for

High-wage countries with knowhow with a good education background um that we can develop something and to come to that we are doing technical uh aspects so there are some sensors available color sensor is easy n so near infrared is something which we will use more but it’s not enough we need more

Sensors and what you already said is we need to say we have to have the intention in background what we want to do with it sorting for reuse different than sorting for recycling and sorting for chemical recycling is again different than sorting for mechanical recycling don’t don’t want to make it

Too complex because there are ways and we are working a lot on um image-based uh sorting using artificial intelligence in the in the background we have a lot in the internet uh unavailable uh information about that to decide is a trouser it’s a shirt it is woven it is knitted it is what

Material and then if we put all that together then we know how to sort it that is not coming from one day to the next but it is coming step by step yeah but I’m very positive uh when you talk about intelligent solutions and then we

Talk about Ai and and what I learned is time goes quick with this or development so I’m very positive I think in the meanwhile U maybe some of you guys are so pretty much under pressure with comments or questions so uh maybe we we we can open and and is there yeah the

Lady here directly um maybe uh CLA you can moderate as you have a better overview yeah if anybody raises the hand I will not you okay yeah hial I think some of you know us and we know you and um I want to talk about um

You said that it will take you rightly said it will take another 10 15 years because we need to study and we need to learn what will happen with the new and very very important approaches now we all know here probably that uh the fashion industry makes up of 10% of the

Global CO2 emissions and the estimates are that by 20 20 2050 it will be 25% right we know the numbers so what do we do in the meantime um how do we how do we handle the waste that’s already outside of our houses and in less than a

Year from now it will be so much more so I would like to hear whoever wants to comment on it and what you think about open loop meaning that ultimately uh maybe until we can do textile to textile yarn to yarn fiber to fiber we should maybe look into other manufacturing

Industries and offer them something that they need much more already because they already have been regulated already for longer than the than the clothing industry maybe to answer that of course we have a volume problem we have much more textile waste than we can even in the in the most optimistic way McKenzie

Is uh counting that we may have 30% fiber to fiber recycling in 2030 what does it mean 70% is still going where but now take something we need a very open thinking for that on the other hand you know that uh concrete the building sector is even worse than the textile

Sector it is uh responsible for the biggest CO2 negative balance uh in the world on the other hand if we use fibers to reinforce uh building materials we have on the one hand a lot of available fibers and for this application it doesn’t count so much on fiber lengths

And if it is pure cotton or mix we can use a lot of that and we have a demand of uh of a lot of um um applications and we can reduce uh it’s a model calculation minimum 30% of the CO2 emissions of the building sector when we

Use uh textile materials for that and we still have something else what it is showing is we only have to combine the right ones and this is not an open loop it’s still a closed loop but it is not a shirt has not to end in a shirt a shirt

Can also end in a good uh uh wall material or whatever yeah I would also love to comment on it because I think the important mindset here is that we always should try to still keep it on the highest value possible like if there is a material in our hands that simply

Can’t be used in textiles again that’s I I agree like open loop recycling is a solution but if there is still an opportunity like still um I think using it in open loop shouldn’t prevent us from developing the right Solutions and keeping it there um otherwise like

Looking also at the the whole system of recycled bottles and textiles no like I think that’s an important point where we realize of course PT bottles are like cleaner more defined in their input and of course recycling is is more on scale in that industry for these reasons and

And others and in this way of course it’s used in textiles as well because it’s much easier it’s more available and like in a scalable way um than textile recycled from polyester textiles but I think just because that is available and an easy way out we shouldn’t stop here

And just use it but rather invest in the Innovations for textile to textile uh Loops as well so I think that’s uh really important to consider there okay thank you well I think we should um consider the next question over here um hi my question overlaps a little bit

With the previous one um I was thinking if all of Europe starts collecting uh the textile waste separately from 2025 on do we have the industrial capacity to deal with it or or or is it all going to end up in landfill or an incinerator

After all and if so then why do we start collecting it separately it’s a very good question is it on yeah yeah it’s a very good question answer to there I mean uh ask the ones who legislated it I mean uh how what do they

Think the the thing is what what what we see is it’s falls out in a in a wrong sequence because first you start with a waste directive and then you take DPR you should have been a little bit the other way around I think first you start

To invest in uh or first you have the funding and the um the money and the foundation how the the model should look like now they start to collect and then we try to figure out how the model should look like because this is definitely new business models inventing here but

Since in order to I mean if you are a sorter you need to understand what are the standards what will it be sorted for what are the different qualities but also how will it be funded it if I mean the APR Starts Now in perhaps 3 4 years

Time and then they will start to design a system but we already today need to think how to design it and how would you invest if you are a sorter how would you invest if you don’t know the the the rules in the game so my interpretation of it

Is it’s a little bit backwards I think um another perspective on this could also be that like well it’s the question on how quickly organizations are taking in and scaling the innovations that are available right because I think the the fashion brands we’re working with today are of course

Bringing out collections for 25 26 now and if organizations do not start yet to design for circularity the products will not be optimized for recycling as well to deal with everything that is collected in that time of course they have a long life uh before that but

Still we we have to start applying the solutions and same is valid for the intelligent sorting solutions they are there they already kind of can be used so it’s a question of how quickly those um Solutions are actually integrated in the Sorting facilities and that is well

A decision-making question also of of um organizations running these um sorting facilities and just to mention like um like fat as an umbrella Organization for the charitable sorters they’re also super Innovative and and multiple of their sorters have already implemented the ID based sorting as well so I think

There is definitely a big willingness and potential of solutions that are ready um but of course it’s a question of when they’re going to be used so we can just say um and also like as a call out to to basically every company in the chain to to implement the innovations

That are there then I think we can yeah be get ready for it definitely I have so many questions you you just only one remark also what you don’t should not or what you should not legle is the economic impact if our government start to understand that that

Is creating jobs and that we investment if we we talk about uh the need of 150 sorting units in Europe just imagine how many investment how many jobs are directly and indirectly connected on the other hand seeing that our economy is not running very very smooth so it’s

Hard to understand why we don’t CH take this opportunity to invest in a green economy which is uh also creating jobs I think it is not far from that it is only sometime it takes a little bit longer uh till the people understand standard but we will see definitely one intelligent

Huge um sorting devices being opened in Germany this year we we need more time to go deeper and maybe later in in in the uh networking area and with a glass of wine we will have a little bit more time I’m sorry uh no having no more time for

Questions because maybe one sentence like a final statement from from your side and and yeah and because then I want to ask Clara for for um um an recap of the day do you have a final statement for this for today or is yeah we have a lot of arguments and so

On no stay away from [Laughter] me you need to to no we need to close that one otherwise I’m interacting with you with your sounding system now uh one final statement is circular economy for me is enjoying things that’s good Ina I would say um the industry right

Now is really at a Tipping Point of of gaining maturity uh in circularity and I think it now is the time to really set targets strategies to really um take the path from piloting to scaling that’s what we have to do to be ready yeah I think for me uh recycling or

Circularity is first of all a very interesting aspect it really is challenging to work on it but it is we can make it it is only the thing we should start to do it and even in a country as you all know we need a little

Bit longer maybe in Germany but when we start to do it then it can develop a real high speed and I’m still optimistic that we can do that yeah so thank you very much for you and yeah it’s time for consumption now yes uh yeah thank you very much not easy

For you no it’s fine so many no really thank you for your openness and for sharing your expertise and that was really very interesting um after enjoying such strong input I um I think we we learned various approaches to Circular economy from my point of view we are in

The middle of a very exciting dynamic because sustainability sustainability and circular strategies are finally getting the attention they need the desire to improve our company policies and to check which approaches Su us individually and which Concepts can be implemented is great and through all the VAR various Loops it’s quite easy to to

Start and it will require more political effort without government support it will not be a sh fire success but let’s not wait for political support this is something I also learned from this evening if it doesn’t come through collaboration and through cooperation we can start and we can keep going to a

Good life and the challenge is how can we design the concepts economically how can we generate Commercial Success from circularity let’s find out and let’s have fun doing So thank you for [Applause] the there are many pioneers that we can look to and who have also taken part here as sponsors which I would like to thank at this point many thanks go to the fair trade company gapa the Natural Care company logos logona cosmetic bodor

Bam and dut for the good wine we will enjoy later on you will also find high quality product samples in the goodie bags which are individually manufactured by a German company using leftover Fabrics from yuman each one the unique and on behalf of the entire team of the

Heso I would like to say a big thank you to our longtime Partners at the city of BOS and to our host at the Swedish Embassy here would personally like to mention Karina can and our head of strategy and finance at the H Ana uman thank you very [Applause] Much and now let us all meet at the networking reception