In 2023, RadiciGroup carried out a research and development project on fibre-to-fibre recycling in the polyester sector in collaboration with Sportstex, a company specialising in sportswear, and Pure Loop, an expert in recycling machinery, who helped to identify the optimal technology for obtaining new textile fibres.
The three teams, coordinated by Radici InNova, obtained an initial result using a mixed recovery technique, in other words by “dosing” variable percentages of polyester granules from the recovery of bottles to granules from recovered fabrics, gradually fine-tuning the processes to obtain a yarn made entirely from recovered textile waste.
Once industrialised, this system will mean that recycled polyester garments can be produced and then recovered again at the end of their life cycle. One company, Shimano, immediately embraced this initiative, putting its own brand on the first t-shirts to result from the collaboration, presented during the Itma fair in Milan.
The research project has highlighted a new form of recycling for a textile-ontextile Closed Loop with no effect on the quality and technical performance of the products.
