Texaid is proud to be part of the pioneering DATIpilot Innovation Community Circular Textiles (CirTex), launched at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Augsburg (THA) in November 2024. This initiative, sponsored by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), aims to create sustainable, closed-loop solutions for textile recycling by combining expertise from academia, industry, government, and society.

This holistic approach is also reflected in the management team members that come from THA, Texaid, Hessnatur Foundation and Research Curatorium for Textiles (FKT). Over four years, CirTex will receive up to 5 million euros funding to drive technological and social innovations in sustainable textile recycling, including cutting-edge technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI).

A key feature of THA and Institut for Textiltechnik Augsburg gGmbH is the fully integrated recycling workshop – Recycling-Atelier Augsburg. This state-of-the-art facility covers every step of the textile recycling process—from the collection and sorting of used textiles to fiber processing and the creation of new products. The facility's unique machine park enables researchers to optimize each stage of the recycling chain, providing invaluable insights that directly feed into the broader innovation community.

Texaid plays a crucial role in this initiative, contributing its expertise in textile collection and sorting to enhance the efficiency of recycling processes. For example, as part of the community project NuCollect initiated by the Institut for Textiltechnik Augsburg gGmbH. This project will start in February 2025 and is dedicated to the analysis and optimization of economically sustainable sorting of used textiles as well as the social participation of citizens in order to achieve better recyclability and higher recycling rates.

You can find more information here: www.circulartextiles.de