Brussels, February 21, 2023 – Today, 43 RegioGreenTex project partners gathered in Brussels to launch a three-year project that is set to change the way we deal with textile recycling.
Regions for Green Textiles – known as RegioGreenTex – is a quadruple helix partnership initiative aimed at mapping and reducing the challenges that currently exist in implementing a circular economy model within the ecosystem. textiles throughout the EU.
RegioGreenTex will support concrete solutions at SME level, where textile waste becomes a value. The project will help maintain and grow jobs in the EU textile sector, relocate production to Europe and make the EU textile value chain more competitive and resilient. It will contribute to the EU Green Deal targets on carbon footprint reduction, energy and water consumption.
Led by EURATEX, the project brings together 43 partners from 11 European regions, with 24 SMEs pioneering innovative solutions to recycle textile waste. Together, SMEs cover different segments of the circular textiles value chain (sorting, recycling fiber materials, removing contaminants, transforming recycled fibers into new textile materials) and provide concrete solutions to bottlenecks in the chain of value from the EU, but also seize market opportunities. The project will also promote the development of 5 regional ReHubs in some of the most important textile regions in the EU.
RegioGreenTex is supported by the European Commission through the Interregional Innovation Investment Instrument – I3, and will be coordinated by the European Innovation Council and the SME Executive Agency (EISMEA).
Within the framework of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the I3 instrument aims to support interregional innovation projects in their commercialization and scaling-up phases by giving them the necessary tools to bring their project to the investment. This instrument aims to strengthen economic cohesion in the EU by helping companies to work with innovators in other regions.
Dirk Vantyghem, Managing Director of EURATEX, welcomes the project: “RegioGreenTex will support our companies in this transition to a new sustainable business model. We are happy to have 24 SMEs involved, which will directly benefit from the action. The project is also expected to mobilize regional authorities to engage in the recycling of textile waste, which can give new impetus to the textile industry as a whole. »
Valentin VIDON, Operation Manager of ROVITEX : “RegioGreenTex is a major opportunity for SME that want to be part of this strategy to reduce the environmental impact of textile production and consumption by making a systemic change toward circularity. Having a positive impact on environment, health, climate and social is what Ultrasonic Lamination is all about. We need to find innovative solutions and start thinking and working differently.”
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