Denmark adds to its sustainability stripes with ReSuit
Danish fashion brand Bestseller, owner of denim brands Jack & Jones and JJXX, plus Vero Moda, recently joined forces with the Danish Technological Institute on ReSuit (Recycling Technologies and Sustainable Textile Product Design), a project aimed at driving forward the recycling of all textile waste in Denmark, as well as a more sustainable textile industry overall.
Other players to join hands as part of the scheme include textile services company Elis, Design School Kolding, Dansk Shell, Aarhus University and green-minded consumer behaviour specialists Naboskab.
The three-year project is supported by a grant of DKK 13 million (around $2.1 million) from Innovation Fund Denmark.
“With this project, we are looking to get all textile waste in Denmark into a loop where it can become new textiles or raw materials for other products. If it succeeds, it will be a gamechanger,” commented the Danish Technological Institute’s Dr Anders Lindhardt, who is leading the initiative.
The consortium will look at the problem from two angles, a press release said. Firstly, it will ask: How can the textile industry get better at designing sustainably? And secondly: Which technologies can ensure circularity for consumer textile waste?
Bestseller’s sustainable materials and innovation manager, Camilla Skjønning Jørgensen, added: “With ReSuit, we are part of an ambitious and multifaceted collaboration. Here, Bestseller’s circular design principles come into meaningful context and if the project manages to develop proper technologies from various knowledge areas, we will see a unified solution with far-reaching potential - not just in Denmark and not just for Bestseller - which is exactly what we are aiming for.”
Significantly, the project will aim to further develop chemical recycling technologies to break down polyester fibre, so that it may be reused and recycled by the textile industry.
In a potentially ground-breaking move, it will also look to employ hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) technology in the conversion of other textile waste into biofuels through a process of water, heat and pressure.
It is hoped that the biofuel generated can then be refined - and the overall HTL process scaled up - in collaboration with Dansk Shell.
Image: Jack & Jones via Instagram.
