SS26 Eco-innovation Preview: Production Waste, a Promising Resource The - Spring-Summer 26 - Première Vision Paris
From the origins of raw materials and the resources they require to the management of a product’s end-of-life, adopting a sustainable approach to materials throughout the entire lifecycle—from origin to disposal—is a major challenge for the fashion industry. As the European Union prepares to introduce a series of regulations to regulate eco-design, with an emphasis on sustainability, recycled content, and recyclability, innovative and responsible alternatives are emerging that integrate circularity into the design process.
A promising approach at the core of this strategy involves designing with waste, offering a solution to avoid relying on virgin resources, especially fossil fuels, and minimizing the use of arable land.
By-Products from the Agri-Food Industry
Textiles, faux leathers, accessories, and even pigments are now being developed from waste, either from the agri-food industry or, for closed-loop recycling, from pre- or post-consumer textile waste.
As an alternative to leather and synthetic leathers, PEELSPHERE® offers circular materials made from fruit waste, using advanced material engineering. Among its innovations are a material derived from banana waste and a leather-like alternative crafted from coffee grounds sourced from Starbucks.
At Brito Knitting, citrus juice industry waste is processed into powder and incorporated into cellulose production, then combined with LENZING™ECOVERO viscose. At Lurdes Sampaïo, by-products from the dairy industry are found in blends used for certain fabrics.
Still using agri-food by-products, Shibata offers plant-based dyes made from rice, onion, olive, and even wine extracts. These dyes, which can be applied to synthetic fabrics, are showcased on 100% recycled nylon. Another pigment, BioBlack TX, is derived from FSC-certified wood waste and guarantees full traceability throughout production and distribution. It is available in black printing ink and dye formulations.
A Key Objective for the Industry: Textile-To-Textile Recycling
While waste offers new resources to be utilized, one of the fashion industry’s main challenges is closed-loop recycling. Currently, textile-to-textile recycling only accounts for about 1% of global production—a figure that is expected to increase through innovations and research.
Among the current options, new artificial cellulosic fibers produced through the chemical recycling of cotton waste, such as Circulose® or NuCycl®, are entirely derived from pre- or post-consumer cotton, without the addition of wood pulp. Meanwhile, Relino fiber is obtained by recycling linen yarns or production waste to create viscose through a similar chemical process.
For synthetic fibers, Tex2Tex™ recycles textile polyester in a closed-loop system through a thermomechanical process—an exciting development, given that most recycled polyester currently comes from PET bottles, even though textile polyester is the most widely produced fiber globally and generates vast amounts of waste.
Finally, promising prospects are also emerging for natural materials, which are typically subject to fiber shortening during mechanical recycling. In the case of recycled cotton by Säntis, a gentle mechanical recycling process now allows for the improvement of the quality and length of the recycled fibers.
Innovations to discover at Première Vision Paris from February 11 to 13, 2025, in the eco-innovation space on the Sourcing Solutions Forum.
Discover more SS26 season decodings here.