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New perspectives with the cradle-to-cradle design
By modern technological standards, 3D printing is old hat. Developed back in the eighties, it was primarily used for prototyping in the nineties. Now, this highly-developed technology is revealing its strengths in an ever increasing number of application areas. And this is hardly surprising because modern 3D printing processes and materials make it easier than ever before to combine performance, sustainability and freedom of design.
Sustainable Manufacturing GmbH, a start-up from northern Germany, understood this and has been producing furniture and home accessories under the Recozy brand in accordance with the cradle-to-cradle design principle since 2021. The filaments and granules used for 3D printing are made primarily from recycled raw materials and are produced exclusively to order. Thanks to the intelligent design, all Recozy products can in principle be recycled without difficulty. The company's Recozy Exchange programme also enables consumers to return unwanted pieces of furniture at the end of their life cycle. Recozy incentivises this by bearing the return costs and giving customers a voucher for their next purchase.
Returning products in the closed B2B sector is somewhat easier. “With our recozy+individual contract line, we offer both individual product solutions and customised special requirements, ranging from white label solutions to complete furnishing concepts,” says Recozy co-founder Finn-Maximilian Hillen. The idea that, for example, design hotels or concept stores can regularly update their Recozy interiors in a resource-saving and virtually CO2-neutral way has been realised. Indeed, the company has already fitted out properties such as shops, event locations and hotel bars throughout Germany.
High quality and industrially scalable
In the textile industry, too, more and more companies are coming up with effective solutions for an efficient circular economy. However, there is still a long way to go. At present, only one percent of used clothing in Europe is regenerated and returned to the market as new goods. 85 percent is incinerated or dumped.
A tried and tested approach to changing this situation is being pursued by Klopman International, Europe's leading manufacturer of fabrics for workwear, protective clothing and leisurewear. The company now offers a completely new range of products made from polyester and cotton fibres manufactured from recycled used clothing. In collaboration with TDV Industries, the company introduced ‘We-ar circular’ in spring 2024, a global concept for obtaining high-performance polyester-cotton fibres from recycled used clothing. In this process, partner companies collect and select specific high-quality textile waste, which is used to make new fibres meeting the high standards of the workwear sector in terms of physical performance and colour fastness.
The circular economy in the textile sector: easier to visualise in a chart than implement in the free market economy. But Klopman did it anyway. ©Klopman
The workwear project can already be implemented on an industrial scale. “The resonance has been nothing short of enthusiastic, thanks in part to the fact that our solution is not only capable of recycling garments into multi-fibres at the end of their life cycle but also that it is market ready and industrially scalable,” says Amaury Sartorius, Managing Director, Klopman.
Series: How things can work
About the series
The challenges facing companies in the textile industry are multifaceted and, to put it mildly, not without difficulty. They range from rising costs for raw materials and energy, a shortage of skilled workers and supply chain problems to the megatrends of sustainability and digitalisation.
Innovative companies seize their opportunities and take advantage of such challenges to generate their business models. However, this rarely works in isolation. Business and research networks are called for.
In the ‘How things can work’ series, we present companies, start-ups and market leaders that have not only tackled a problem but have also used it to develop a sustainable business venture.
Other articles in the series:
One for all. Making the circular economy work. (Part 1)
