#Recycling / Circular Economy

2025-05-08

Eurofins Sustainability Services introduces first recycled plastics testing that leverages properties of plastics

Eurofins Sustainability Services, a full-service provider for retailers, brands, and manufacturers of consumer products, has grown its extensive service offering to include recycled plastics testing for the textile, apparel, and footwear industries. By using the most advanced methodology, this is the first service of its kind that can accurately verify recycled polymer content in recycled plastics. It does so by focusing on their physical and chemical properties, instead of analysing generic markers.

Plastic pollution is a global environmental threat, and many industries have found innovative ways to incorporate recycled plastics into products to achieve circular goals and meet consumer demand for more sustainably produced products. Being able to prove the composition of materials used is key, as there are significant regulatory and consumer concerns regarding greenwashing and authenticity of claims.

Eurofins Sustainability Services’ recycled plastics testing provides Softlines industries with a novel and reliable solution. Unlike audits and testing focused on chemical markers, this testing is based on evidence of recycled content and delivers the following advantages to brands:

+ Substantiate marketing claims and avoid greenwashing, building consumer trust and protecting brand reputation

+ Support a low-risk, transparent supply chain, build trust within supply networks and ensure the authenticity of purchased materials

+ Fulfill regulatory requirements, ensuring compliance with growing regulatory requirements through the provision of scientific evidence and documentation

+ Quality results and testing that delivers comprehensive and precise analysis, identifying intentional manipulation of samples

+ Customised solutions, with a full suite of services and customised reports tailored to specific requirements

Given the challenges many industries and brands are experiencing in recycled plastics verification, Eurofins Sustainability Services is hosting a webinar on 8 May to introduce this innovative service offering.

20 Start-Ups selected for CEMATEX Start-Up Grant at ITMA 2027

CEMATEX has selected 20 emerging start-ups from nine countries to receive the CEMATEX Start-Up Grant and showcase their innovations at Start-Up Valley during ITMA 2027 in Hanover. Their participation will be fully funded by CEMATEX, giving promising early-stage companies access to the world’s leading textile and garment technology platform.

Moving Advanced Recycling from Innovation to Implementation

The Advanced Recycling Conference 2026 explores technologies, markets, financing and scale-up of innovative recycling solutions for waste streams including mixed plastic waste, textiles and PVC. Europe’s chemical and materials sector faces growing pressure to close carbon loops, strengthen raw-material safety and resilience and meet increasingly ambitious EU recycling targets. Against this backdrop, the Advanced Recycling Conference (ARC) will bring together industry leaders, technology providers, researchers, innovators and policy-makers on 17–18 November 2026 in Cologne, Germany.

New Cotton Review examines competitiveness, market risk, and opportunities

From moving record volumes of Brazilian cotton to market, to managing price volatility, unlocking Ethiopia’s production potential, and strengthening African textile trade, the latest edition of Cotton: Review of the World Situation examines some of the most consequential opportunities and challenges facing the global cotton industry.

Long John puts KARL MAYER's RDJ 7/3 into operation and strengthens its position as a market leader

KARL MAYER has just unveiled its new RDJ 7/3 Jacquard Double Needle Bar Raschel Machine in the international trade press, and the innovation is already causing a stir in the market: The Long John Group, a leading manufacturer of performance footwear fabrics and a long-standing partner of renowned brands, was the first customer to invest in the new machine and celebrated its official launch at its Indonesian plant on August 20.

An eco-friendly alternative to fluorocarbon treatments

Protective and outdoor clothing derives its durable water-, dirt- and oil- repellent properties from the application of fluorinated polymers or per- and polyfluorinated low-molecular- weight chemicals (PFCs). The beneficial properties thus achieved on textiles are offset by environmental and human health risks. For manufacturers of sports, medical, protective and automotive textiles, researchers at the Sächsisches Textilforschungsinstitut e.V. and the Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research have developed liquid-applied dispersions and solutions to functionalise textiles without the use of fluorine.