EU New Cotton Project announces completion of first half of three year project

The New Cotton Project has announced the completion of the first half of the three-year project, demonstrating the consortium’s effective execution of the complete value chain.

The New Cotton Project, an industry first, was established in 2020 to push circular economy adoption in the textile sector, bringing together twelve pioneering firms from throughout the manufacturing value chain as well as major research institutes. The goal of the effort was to use technology and teamwork to show a possible circular model for commercial garment manufacturing.

The milestone marks the release of the consortium’s first set of insights as it prepares for the commercial run of the Adidas and H&M clothing, as well as the publication of its first white paper through Aalto University.

Over a three-year period, the collaboration set out to collect and sift end-of-life textiles before using pioneering Infinited Fiber technology to regenerate them into Infinna, a novel man-made cellulosic fiber that looks and feels just like virgin cotton.

The fibers are then made into various types of fabric for Adidas and H&M to design, make, and sell. The artworks will be the first to be made by the joint collaboration and will be available in autumn/winter 2022.

At the halfway mark, the consortium will celebrate the successful deployment of the complete value chain, from textile sorting through garment sample manufacture. Frankenhuis completed the project’s textile sorting and mechanical processing phase, analyzing the fabric composition of sorted textiles and exploring pre-processing procedures to discover the proper feedstock for the Infinited Fiber Company process.

REvolve Waste assisted with the early phases, and their continuous effort to map the location and composition of textile waste across Europe will continue throughout the project.

Adidas and H&M have successfully tested and produced designs using the unique fabric, and are now ready for commercial production. Adidas has also conducted a number of customer studies in order to understand consumer perceptions toward circular and recycled fashion, which is another essential factor for the project.

As the New Cotton Project enters its second phase, the consortium will continue to focus on data collecting and analysis in order to highlight significant industry insights for Fashion for Good.