[pageLogInLogOut]

#Recycling / Circular Economy

€11.6 million boost for circularity research – textile industry in the spotlight

The shift toward a circular economy is gaining momentum — and the textile industry is taking center stage. With €11.6 million in new funding, the VolkswagenStiftung has approved nine ambitious research projects under the initiative “Circularity with Recycled and Biogenic Raw Materials.” The goal: to enable closed-loop systems that reduce waste, reclaim resources, and rethink how materials are used and reused — especially in sectors like textiles, where resource intensity and waste volumes remain high.

The textile and fashion industries are among the largest contributors to global material consumption and waste. Fast fashion, synthetic fibers, and limited recycling infrastructures pose major environmental challenges. While millions of garments are discarded each year, only a fraction is recycled into new fibers. The rest ends up in landfills, incinerators, or is downcycled into low-value applications.

To tackle this, the VolkswagenStiftung is specifically funding practical and scalable innovations that address material recovery and circular production in real-world contexts. The call for proposals, which closed on March 1, 2024, received 83 applications from across the natural and technical sciences. Nine projects were selected — including two with direct relevance for the textile sector.

Two textile-focused projects exemplify this shift:

CloseT – Closing the Loop for Used Textiles

Lead Institutions: Süddeutsches Kunststoff-Zentrum (SKZ), Würzburg (Dr. Hatice Malatyali); Fraunhofer IFAM, Bremen (Prof. Dr. Andreas Hartwig)

Funding: ~€1.1 million

Recycling worn-out clothing remains one of the textile sector’s greatest unsolved challenges. While garments unsuitable for reuse are typically downcycled or burned, many still contain high-quality fibers such as polyester that could be recovered and reprocessed — if the right technology exists.

The CloseT project aims to close this gap with a chemical recycling process tailored to post-consumer textile waste. Drawing from established methods in PET bottle recycling, the team is developing a scalable solution to regenerate mixed fiber blends into like-new textile materials. If successful, CloseT could provide a blueprint for industrial-scale fiber-to-fiber recycling — a gamechanger for sustainable fashion and circular production.

HotCircularity – Biodegradable Alternatives to Microplastics from Industrial Waste

Lead Institutions: University of Duisburg-Essen (Prof. Dr. Bettina Siebers, Dr. Christopher Bräsen); TU Wien (Prof. Dr. Oliver Spadiut)

Funding: ~€1.4 million

Microplastics are ubiquitous in the textile sector — from fiber shedding during washing to intentional use in coatings for fertilizers and seeds. HotCircularity explores a radical alternative: replacing synthetic microplastics with biodegradable lipids, produced by thermophilic microorganisms that thrive on industrial waste such as crude glycerol from biodiesel production.

The project aims to develop a low-cost, industrial-scale biofactory that transforms waste into high-performance biopolymers — offering new, circular material options for functional textile coatings and other applications where biodegradability is key.

With textile circularity now recognized as both an environmental imperative and a strategic innovation frontier, the projects funded under this initiative represent critical steps forward. They also reflect a wider trend: the textile industry, once a symbol of linear production, is becoming a laboratory for circular design, materials science, and cross-sector collaboration.

More textile projects are: 

Textile Materials Designed for Circularity (teXirc) (Prof. Dr. Stefan Mecking, Universität Konstanz; Prof. Dr. Michael R. Buchmeiser, Deutsche Institute für Textil- und Faserforschung, Denkendorf; Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schwaneberg, RWTH Aachen; rd. 1,4 Mio. Euro)

ADMIRATION - Accelerated Discovery of Living Fiber-reinforced Mineral Composite Materials for Circular Construction (Prof. Martin Ostermann, Dr. Achim Weber, Universität Stuttgart; Prof. Dr. Wilfried Weber, INM – Leibniz-Institut für Neue Materialien, Saarbrücken; rd. 1,4 Mio. Euro)

Plasma-assisted recycling of glass-fibre reinforced plastics (Dr.-Ing. Diego Gonzalez, Leibniz-Institut für Plasmaforschung und Technologie, Greifswald; Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dieter Bathen, Institut für Energie und Umwelttechnik (IUTA), Duisburg; Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Gräbner, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg; rd. 1,4 Mio. Euro)

MyPro - A Platform for Sustainable Mycelium Material Production using genetically engineered filamentous Fungi (Dr. Hannes Hinneburg, Fraunhofer-Institut für Angewandte Polymerforschung IAP, Potsdam; Dr. Gita Naseri, Max-Planck-Forschungsstelle für die Wissenschaft der Pathogene, Berlin; rd. 1,3 Mio. Euro)

More information on the program and funded projects is available via the foundation’s website.

https://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/en/




More News from VolkswagenStiftung

More News on Recycling / Circular Economy

#Recycling / Circular Economy

AI Circular Economy Conference 2026 fuels innovation at the intersection of AI and Circular Economy

The AI Circular Economy Conference 2026, organised by nova-Institute, brought together 116 participants from 15 countries in Cologne and online to explore the transformation of the chemical and materials industry supported and accelerated by artificial intelligence. During the two-day event, leading experts from industry, research, start-ups and the investment community discussed how AI can maximise the potential of renewable carbon creating efficient circular value chains. The conference featured 24 presentations and multiple panel discussions, highlighting the growing convergence of digital technologies and circular material systems. It demonstrated how artificial intelligence is progressing from the experimental stage to real industrial implementation within the circular economy.

#Recycled_Fibers

Circ deepens access to recycled fibers with Xinxiang Bailu Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd. partnership agreement

Circ®, a global leader in textile‑to‑textile recycling, today announced a new partnership agreement with Xinxiang Bailu Chemical Fiber Co., a Canopy Dark Green Shirt producer and one of the world’s leading producers of viscose filament. The agreement marks a significant step in Circ’s continued expansion in China and strengthens its position within the country’s rapidly evolving circular textile ecosystem; further supporting Circ’s ability to supply recycled fibers near existing fashion supply chains.

#Recycled_Fibers

Worn Again Technologies unveils the Accelerator

Worn Again Technologies unveils the Accelerator, the next major step towards commercialising its pioneering Textile-to-Fibre recycling process and proving the technical and economic feasibility of polycotton recycling.

#Recycling / Circular Economy

Textile‑to‑textile recycling leader Circulose joins Spinnova’s ecosystem to accelerate technology scale‑up

Textile‑to‑textile recycling leader Circulose joins Spinnova’s ecosystem (consortium) to help advance the scale‑up of Spinnova’s technology. Spinnova has actively sought partners to accelerate commercial scale‑up, and Circulose, as a key player in textile recycling, strengthens the ecosystem by providing a raw material that is in high demand across the industry.

Latest News

#Techtextil 2026

Gebr. Otto highlights versatility at Techtextil with regional supply chains, yarn innovations and new hygiene segment

At this year’s Techtextil, Gebr. Otto places its versatility at the center of its presentation. In addition to spinning, twisting and dyeing – traditionally focused on fine cotton – textile processors will also find a competent development partner for technical specialty solutions. The Dietenheim-based spinning mill has now built up a decade of experience in the production of technical yarns, particularly from aramids. A new hygiene segment has also been established, where yarns for medical and hygiene products are currently being produced. In the future, this department could also develop textile products for the food sector. Gebr. Otto will once again be present at the BW-i joint stand, booth D81, hall 12.1. What is wound onto the spool is determined by the customer: Gebr. Otto develops according to specific customer requirements and transforms its own ideas into yarn innovations.

#Europe

Commission presents proposal for EU Inc. - unlocking the full potential of the Single Market for Europe's entrepreneurs

Today, the European Commission presented its proposal for EU Inc., a new single set of corporate rules, building the cornerstone and starting point for the EU's 28th regime. EU Inc. is an optional, digital-by-default European corporate framework. It will make it easier for businesses to start, operate and grow across the EU – incentivising them to stay in Europe, and encourage those who once looked elsewhere to return.

#Man-Made Fibers

OnceMore® from Södra brings end-to-end traceability for circular Man-made Cellulosic Fibers (MMCF) using TextileGenesis

OnceMore® from Södra, the world’s first large-scale process for recycling blended fabrics into high‐quality dissolving pulp, will begin using TextileGenesis, a Lectra company, to strengthen traceability from raw material to retail across the value chain. OnceMore® produces dissolving pulp made from blended textile waste and wood sourced from responsibly managed Swedish forests. By integrating TextileGenesis, OnceMore® supports the growing need for verified data and secure, transparent tracking throughout increasingly complex supply chain.

#Sustainability

Experts publish APAC policy priorities

Cascale today announced the publication of its APAC Policy Priorities Paper, developed by the Asia-Pacific (APAC) Policy Member Expert Team (MET) to identify key regional sustainability challenges and provide practical, aligned recommendations for policymakers and industry stakeholders across Asia-Pacific.

TOP