#Recycling / Circular Economy
The circular textile economy is rapidly approaching
Worn Again Technologies is in the final planning stages of an innovative demonstration plant that will showcase its ground-breaking polymer processing technologies for textile recycling. The facility, which will be built and operated by the company, is to be constructed in Winterthur, Switzerland and will have the capacity to prevent 1’000 tonnes of textiles being incinerated every year, paving the way for industrial-scale operations.
Worn Again Technologies’ demonstration plant will be constructed near to one of the startup’s technology partners, Sulzer Chemtech, in Winterthur, Switzerland. This represents a crucial step towards upscaling and commercializing the company’s recycling process technology.
In particular, the new industrial-scale infrastructure will help validate the closed-loop chemical recycling solution that has been developed by Worn Again Technologies and its strategic partners. The process obtains polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and cellulose from non-reusable, hard-to-recycle textiles that constitute post-industrial and post-consumer waste. Additionally, the Worn Again Technologies process purifies the products by removing dyes, contaminants and impurities, a step forward from traditional recycling methods. As such, it delivers high-quality, virgin-like materials that can be reintroduced into supply chains to become new fibers, textiles and other products.
Erik Koep, CEO at Worn Again Technologies, comments: “We are excited to be taking the next step in making reliable, high-performance textile recycling a reality. The construction and operation of this demonstration plant are the next major milestones in achieving our vision for textile circularity. We look forward to starting operations soon and see this as the first plant in a global network of processing facilities.”
Torsten Wintergerste, Chairman of Worn Again Technologies, adds: “We are delighted to see our technologies being leveraged to create a state-of-the-art textile recycling plant. Building it in Switzerland gives Worn Again Technologies direct access to Sulzer Chemtech’s global R&D facilities and the Swiss textile industry. We will build an ecosystem of partners around this demo plant and drive forward the creation of a circular economy of textiles. Switzerland is an ideal location for Worn Again to realize the demonstration plant with all stakeholders in the shortest time period possible.”
