Retaining product performance and longevity in the move towards less complex, biobased, and biodegradable materials
Target Value Chain: Textiles
Target Mission: Region of Centre-South
Challenge Owner: (Mission Council Member)
Currently, fast–fashion dominates the textile industry, and is associated with many environmental and health hazards, many of them stemming from suboptimal materials and design choices, and petroleum–based, hazardous bunders, additives, dyes, and finishes that provide aesthetic and performance characteristics to finished products. Yet with the increasing awareness of microplastic pollution, and other impacts stemming from the sector, citizens are looking for clothing that delivers on durability and performance, while also tackling the more systemic issues of microfiber release and
biodegradability. In the move towards a truly circular, regenerative textile sector in the Mediterranean region, we are looking for next generation of less complex, plant–based and bio fabricated materials, and its application in the textile industry.
The solutions should ideally:
• Provide sustainable alternatives to petroleum–based and hazardous binders, additives, dues and finishes that provide aesthetic and performance characteristics to finished products.
• Support inventive design and manufacturing approaches, and allow for effective use of
recovered and recycled materials from old textiles (e.g., in clothing, carpets, curtains,
furniture, etc.)
• Help to identify new feasible bio feedstocks and match them with appropriate processing innovation, taking into consideration the regional context
