End-to-end textile recycling innovation support

RISE supports the entire recycling chain – from strategy, analysis and circular design to pre-treatment, recycling using mechanical, chemical or thermomechanical methods, and the development of new materials and products. With cutting-edge expertise in textile material flows, advanced testbeds and unique technical infrastructure, we enable efficient circular business models.

As an independent partner, RISE provides practical expertise to develop, test, validate and verify recycled textile materials. Testing is conducted according to established standards, and we also develop customised methods tailored to specific needs.

Through a global network and active involvement in EU textile policy, RISE offers access to international collaborations, market insights and early adaptation to future regulations. With long-standing experience and a holistic approach, we take projects from lab scale to industrial application – whether in fashion, interiors, technical textiles, medical devices or the public sector.

Our textile recycling services

• Strategy, analysis and circular design
• Material pre-treatment
• Chemical, mechanical and thermomechanical recycling
• Product development from proof of concept to prototype
• Verification, testing and certification

Contact us or continue reading to explore our textile recycling offer in detail.

Your ideas are safe with us

RISE protects your innovations with proper handling of intellectual property and clear non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

Tailored partnerships for textile innovation

RISE offers both specific services and long-term partnerships to support companies in the transition to sustainable and circular textile products. Whether support is needed with testing, certification, analysis or more extensive collaboration across the development journey, services are tailored to meet the needs. RISE also supports research applications and joint projects, including help with applying for EU-funded research and innovation projects and national programmes.

Contact us

RISE offers support at every stage of the textile recycling process – from sorting and material analysis to technology selection and pilot or demo-scale development. We would be happy to learn about your challenges and how we can support you. Don't hestitate to get in touch with us!

The project, will the full title Exnovation for sufficiency: exploring pathways to an exnovation mindset and sufficiency futures, challenges the current approach of accelerating the transition to a circular economy mainly through innovation, i.e. adding circular solutions, such as products, business models and systems. In contrast, it addresses opportunities for exnovation, i.e. the phasing out and removal of key lock-ins mechanisms – material, social, and structural – that perpetuate unsustainable consumption and production practices. In this project, RISE, Lund University and Chalmers University of Technology set out to explore and realise the potential of exnovation for supporting a sufficiency-oriented circular economy.

To concretise the research, two sectors associated with high resource flows and significant impacts will be addressed: textiles, including clothing, and electronics, including information technology. Opportunities for exnovation at different system levels will be explored through literature reviews and small-scale exnovation experiments for three key actors: policy makers, organisations and consumers.

Guiding tools will be developed to support the actors in putting an exnovation for sufficiency mindset into practice, and implications for each actor will be synthesised, including exnovation pathways for sufficiency. Findings will be disseminated in the form of scientific publications, seminars, visual material and videos via a variety of channels. Expected impacts include the adoption of new mindsets and practices by policy makers, organisations and consumers, contributing to changes in consumption and production that enable society to stay within social and planetary boundaries.

The project is led by RISE and carried out together with the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University and Chalmers University of Technology. The project members consist of Sara Renström and Anneli Selvefors at RISE, Jessika Luth Richter and Carl Dalhammar at IIIEE and Helena Strömberg at Chalmers.

Are you curious about exnovation?

Do you want to stay updated on the project? Would you like to be invited to presentations, seminars, focus groups, workshops, or other activities? Would you like to participate in exnovation experiments? May we interview you? Or would you like to collaborate in some other way? Then you can sign up for our contact list via the turquoise button above to the right. You can also contact the project leader, Sara Renström.

The textile industry accounts for nearly 10% of the global carbon dioxide emissions which is more than the combined emissions from maritime shipping and international flights. Two thirds of the textile fibre feedstock are still fossil-based. The main biobased feedstock, cotton, is characterised by energy-intensive production processes. 

Seaweed is a blue biobased feedstock with great potential for textile manufacturing. The production of algae involves an ecosystem benefit with carbon dioxide fixation and uptake of nutrients (counteracts eutrophication).

 In the KELPTEX project, alginate-rich fractions – extracted using novel energy-efficient biorefinery methods - will be wet-spun into textile filaments, at both lab and pilot scale. Moreover, a resource-efficient spray technique will be investigtated to dye the textiles using an algae-based pigment The goal is to create a sustainable and circular alternative to traditional fossil and bio-based fibers.

The project is coordinated by Chalmers Industriteknik with RISE being responsible for the main technological development (alginate-based textile fiber manufacturing), in close collaboration with Manatee Biomaterials (alginate extraction) and Mounid (textile dyeing).  

The textile industry accounts for nearly 10% of the global carbon dioxide emissions. Two thirds of the textile fibres are still fossil-based. The main biobased feedstock, cotton, is characterised by chemical-intensive production processes and extensive use of water and pesticides during cultivation. Moreover, c onventional textile dyeing is tremendously resource-intensive and accounts for 25% of the textile production's environmental impact.

A blue biobased feedstock with great potential is seaweed. Rather than contributing to emissions, the production involves an ecosystem benefit with carbon dioxide fixation and uptake of nutrients (counteracts eutrophication).

In the ALLGAE project, companies along the value chain: from seaweed harvesting (Nordic Seafarm and Manatee Biomaterials), textile pigment formulators (Mounid), and the textile industry (Houdini Sportswear) are collaborating with researchers at RISE and CIT to develop 100% algae-based textile fibres. This will be done by sustainably extracting crude alginate fractions from seaweed that will be further manufactured to textile fibres. In addition, the algae pigment will be incorporated in an efficient one-pot process during the fibre spinning. We hope that these innovative fibres have the potential to replace conventional fossil and biobased fibres, while eliminating the need for harmful textile dyes

The growth of fast fashion and textile production is associated with a substantial increase in global greenhouse gas emissions. A promising alternative to reduce the environmental impact of textiles is prolonging the useful life of clothes through repairs. The project intends to generate robust and data-based evidence on consumers’ motivations to repair garments and preferences for characteristics of garments that require repairs.

In this project, we rely on qualitative and quantitative approaches to investigate both garment’s features and personal attributes that drive consumers’ repair decisions. More specifically, to generate qualitative insights, we use the social practice theory, which considers a behaviour as consisting of materials (objects), competences (skills, etc.) and meanings (such as social significance). The project conducts a series focus group discussions to understand how garment repairs can fit into everyday life practices.

Our quantitative approach is grounded in the theory of random utility maximization in which we examine consumers’ preferences for various characteristics of garments that require repair services. For this purpose, the project develops and conducts a choice experiment survey on scenarios the mimic garment repair decisions consumers face in reality. The quantitative analysis generates insights about the trade-offs consumers make between repair costs and important garment characteristics including durability, damage severity, repair time and replacement value.   

The project intends to also identify and test behavioural interventions that encourage consumers to repair garments. We leverage a digital platform for garment repairs that is under development by one of the project partners, Circle Wear AB, to test our proposed interventions.  Better understanding people's motivations and preferences for repairs leads to offering tailored services in the short-term, and consequently to a real-life transformation of clothing consumption habits where repairs are prioritized over purchasing new clothes.