Overview
Although polyester is generally easy to recycle, only around 1% of all polyester textiles can currently be recycled from textile to textile. A key obstacle here is the complexity of the materials used in textiles. Today, textiles that are not sorted by type can hardly be recycled. Reducing material complexity is crucial to help get textiles back into the loop. The monomaterial design principle is the most effective way to reduce material complexity.
But circular design alone isn't enough – we need circular systems that can effectively integrate products. It's really tough for SMEs to set up their own circular value chains.
This is where Mono.Loop.Poly (MLP) comes in: the project establishes a design-centred, closed material cycle for polyester textiles – inspired by the PET bottle cycle – with a focus on the Swiss outdoor industry.
As part of the project, standards are being developed and defined to ensure compatibility and tolerances. A design library is being set up to provide support during the design and development phase. This includes compatible manufacturing processes, fabrics and trims that meet the specified standards and facilitate the development of individual, circular products with a focus on the monomaterial design principle. In order to avoid foreign materials in textiles, a monomaterial back-injection moulding approach was also tested at laboratory level.
The concept will be prototypically tested along the developed material cycle using a jacket with key stakeholders. From yarn production (Monosuisse) to fabric production (Schoeller Textiles) and the manufacture of the end product (Rotauf) to the take-back concept (iceep) and chemical recycling (DePoly), the entire cycle is being tested and insights gained.
In future, companies will be able to integrate a wide variety of products into this cycle. This will simplify the development of circular products, exploit synergies, ensure a homogeneous feedstock for recyclers and enable access to textile-to-textile recycled polyester.
Mono.Loop.Poly represents a paradigm shift: from individual solutions to a system – with the aim of promoting the circularity of polyester products in the outdoor industry while maintaining design freedom.
