Founded in 1876 in Albino (Italy), Albini Group has always been a family business and today is directed by the fifth generation of the Albini family. With 7 establishments, 3 commercial offices and a total of 1200 employees, Albini Group operates in more than 80 countries and is the largest European manufacturer of shirting fabrics.

Challenge Summary:

Textile fibres and fabrics are involved in long production and manufacturing processes, with some processes that have high impact in the environment. For example, in the production of easy-iron shirts, two treatments are usually performed: continuous wet treatment and continuous dry treatment.

We are looking for a solution that:

• Is able to replace traditional and more costly technological finishing processes, thus focusing on circular economy and sustainability. The upstream products of the refining product must consist of ingredients from natural and renewable sources, such as vegetable waste.The new solution should make it possible to obtain fabrics that are both high-performing and designed for high circularity potential. Ideally, it should be applicable to both cotton fabrics and other types of textile substrates with different compositions. This new product should represent an important evolution of the easy-care products on the market today and meet the needs of many different textile companies.

The broad value chain of Textile fibres and fabrics raises challenges related to recognizability of

materials on the market. This topic is relevant as the manufacturer can better verify and control the fabrics in the different international markets, while the consumer might also have more information about the garment. This information can be useful at the end of the product life to identify the treatment applied to the garment to facilitate recycling or disposal.

We are looking for a solution that:

• Enables detectability of fabrics through analytical techniques (e.g. FT-IR) to ensure traceability of the material even after it has been placed on the market. It must be possible to use the information obtained from the analysis systems for a quick and rapid