In 2021, RESPIN partered with one of the biggest home accesories brands across Europe to recycle used workwear of all their production plants across Europe. The aim of this strategic collaboration was to show the market that used workwear could be transformed into new, high quality products while achieving significant environmental savings.
Historically, these uniforms were destroyed, however this brand saw that these used textiles could also be used again as raw materials for new products and that they could play a leading role in developing the market for high value recycling. From that moment, RESPIN had a mission to explore and research commercially feasible options for high value recycling of these materials. For this reason, the old uniforms were cutted and shredded, in order to be transformed into new yarns to be used in new applications, such as sofa covers, tablecloths and cushion covers. We included 70% of postconsumer fiber, by mixing it with another 30% of recyled PET to create a new yarn which was 100% recycled.
The Life Cycle Assessment of this project was: a reduction in water consumption by 87%, decreased energy use by 42% and a reduction in CO2 emissions by 33%, when comparing with a non recycled yarn.
