Development of technical textiles made of recycled fibres - Co-financing of research innovation projects in support of green transition and digitalisation

The project aims to move towards a circular economy that provides many inputs, such as preserving natural resources, reducing the adverse impacts of waste generation, reducing the global carbon footprint, reducing water consumption and dyes in fabric production. The investment is carried out by Predilnica Litija, d.o.o. in partnership with Tekstilna, d.o.o.

The project aims to extend sustainable practices to technical textiles by developing mixtures from recycled and bio-base fibres to make protective clothing. As part of the project, the textiles developed will not require additional dressing and dyeing processes that significantly burden the environment with polluted waste water.

The project aims to develop 12 yarns to produce 3 fabrics with refractory, thermo-isolative properties that are both comfortable and environmentally friendly and placed on the market.

Ltija spinnery will use the secondary raw material (fibre resulting from spinning processes that would otherwise constitute waste) as a raw material to make recycled yarn for technical purposes. The company Tekstilna will produce fabric for liners of protective clothing without environmentally harmful dyeing stages and chemical treatment to achieve fire-security from a number of previously developed ones.

Aramid fibres are expensive and hard-to-reach raw materials made from non-renewable raw materials, whose production and transport cause significant negative environmental impacts and will replace the source fibres with recycled fibres. Yarn from recycled aramid mixture and source aramid fibres will be suitable for the development of fabric to make liners for firefighter’s clothing for which GRS will be obtained certificate.

Better material efficiency, reduced dependency on suppliers raw materials, reduced negative environmental impact and financial savings (less energy, less transport; less water, excluding dyes and auxiliary textile chemicals) also represent a business opportunity.

The Recovery and Resilience Facility provides funding of EUR 299,999, while the total value of the investment is EUR 693,999. 

The project started in October 2022 and will be completed by September 2024.

Additional links:

• https://www.litija.com/sl/2022/11/project-development-of-technical-textiles-from-recycled-fibers/