Recycling and reuse of materials is in the coming years an important focus point for many companies in the textile, carpet and clothing industry.

Raw material prices will increase because of increased oil prices, but more important, by growing global demand for textile fibers. China and India are countries with high economic growth, leading to higher incomes. And a rising prosperity is always combined with a growing demand for fashionable clothing and interior textiles. This will lead to increased prices for textiles, carpets and clothing on a global scale.

Recycling and reuse of (secondary) recovered fibre materials will be necessary to have sufficient resources in the future.

Alcon Advies is involved in several projects in the field of textile recycling. The quality of the raw materials recovered is important for reuse. With innovative separation techniques and new processing technologies, it is possible to use recovered fibres from post consumer textiles into high quality products. On the initiative of Alcon Advies, the project Jeans for Jeans (J4J) has been formulated. This has led to a product presentation on May 22, 2008 in The Hague. At that occasion, J. Cramer (minister of environmental affairs) received the first products of recycled jeans (see the news archive on this website).

Textiles for textiles (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eco-innovation/docs/publi/brochure_en_09.pdf) is a project in which an automatic sorting technology for post consumer textiles will be demonstrated. This line will be able to sort textiles based on chemical composition and color. It is believed that this sorting technology will stimulate the reuse of textile materials in high end products. The sorting software will guarantee the quality of the sorted fractions, which enables users to develop products based on these sorted fractions.

In addition, Alcon Advies together with 2 other companies filed a patent on a new sustainable carpet concept. In all stages, from production through use to disposal, this carpet-concept is more sustainable than carpets currently on the market. The production will significantly save on raw materials and energy. In use, a higher comfort is achieved through individually tuneable carpet properties. After disposal, the carpet can be totally recycled and reused in carpets again. This carpet concept is a real example of Cradle to Cradle design, taking into account all aspects of materials selection, production, use and disposal.