The production of textiles has a strong impact on the environment due to both over-consumption and the practice of production processes requiring the use of substances to manufacture, treat, and dye fabrics. In this context, finding new ways and solutions to transform used textiles into by products or inputs for production is a trump card for the future of the textile sector. This may be accomplished by developing a circular economy policy, which involves large investments with a payoff only in a medium to long-term perspective.
Therefore, researchers have recently published a study that is based on providing new guidelines for the textile industries to become circular. The proposed method has been adopted by a major company operating in Italy and is under continuous improvement. The guidelines were tested against several case studies in Company Manteco SPA, operating in Italy, demonstrating their effectiveness in creating brand new products with technical properties similar (or even better) to the ones obtainable using virgin materials.
The work proposed a set of guidelines for textile industries that aims to transition from traditional production processes to a systemic approach considering the circular economy. Each step involves a strong commitment of the company towards its stakeholders and the implementation of several procedures, often accompanied by a certification from third parties. By implementing the outlined procedures, textile companies could develop an integrated system comprising processes, technologies, products, and control procedures aimed at the production of high-quality textile products in terms of both style and performance obtained through a circular process that includes all phases of production, use, and reuse of materials, with particular reference to regenerated wool.
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