As part of this collaboration, NFT will supply Reju with secondary raw materials derived from both used and unused textile waste for the purpose of recycling and production of Reju Polyester.
The two companies will work together to improve the infrastructure for collecting and processing textile waste from both post-consumer and post-industrial sources. The partnership will facilitate an open supply chain that ensures 100% traceability of the recycled materials involved.
Backed by Technip Energies and using technology developed through IBM research initiatives, Reju aims to create a global circular textile recycling ecosystem that addresses the presence of PET plastics in textiles.
Reju is currently developing systems to regenerate textile waste on a large scale, starting with polyester. The resulting product, known as Reju Polyester, is expected to have a carbon footprint 50% lower than that of traditional virgin polyester and can be regenerated indefinitely.
Reju’s first demonstration facility, called Regeneration Hub Zero, is operational in Frankfurt, Germany, with plans to produce Reju PET by 2025.
Materials supplied by NFT will be processed at Reju’s Regeneration Hub Zero in Frankfurt and at future Reju facilities across Europe.
Reju CEO Patrik Frisk said: “With the collection of textile waste in the European Union mandatory from 2025, it is imperative that we have scalable systems and partnerships to process what is collected and prevent it from ending up in landfills or incineration.”
The Waste Framework Directive (WFD) requires all EU member states to introduce separate collection systems for used textiles from 2025.
In 2020, the EU produced around 6.95 million tonnes of textile waste. Of this total, 82% was post-consumer waste, with the remainder coming from textile production processes or unsold goods.
NFT was created from a collaboration between Tissages de Charlieu Groupe and Synergies TLC.
In November 2023, NFT and its partners launched a semi-industrial site and research center dedicated to textile recycling. This pilot line integrates automated sorting technologies from Pellenc ST with slitting lines from Andritz to process significant volumes of post-industrial and post-consumer textile waste.
This setup aims to eliminate challenging components while simultaneously converting waste into industrial-quality fibers and raw materials suitable for new recycling technologies such as those from Reju.
In addition, NFT supplies secondary raw materials to various sectors, including non-wovens, insulation, composites, plastics and other textiles.
