The Lenzing Group, a global provider of specialty fibers for the textile and nonwoven industries, is reinforcing its commitment to circularity by becoming a partner in the CISUTAC (Circular and Sustainable Textile and Clothing) project co-funded by the European Union.
The new consortium was established to support the transition to a circular and sustainable textile sector and, including Lenzing, the 27 consortium members consist of industry association Euratex, textile company Inditex, PVH, Decathlon and NGO Oxfam. For its part, Lenzing is focusing on the development of recycling processes for cellulose fibers in line with its own corporate strategy.
CISUTAC aims to prevent, identify and eliminate barriers to the circularity of the clothing chain. In recent years, Lenzing has set itself the target of actively promoting circularity, reducing resource consumption, avoiding environmental pollution and waste, increasing value creation and resource efficiency, and mitigating the negative social impact on people.
“At Lenzing, we work hard on a daily basis to make our industry more sustainable and promote the transformation of the textile business from a linear to a circular model,” Lenzing CEO Stephan Sielaff said. “This approach is firmly anchored in our strategy and corporate values. Thus, I am delighted that as a champion of sustainability, we can also make a valuable contribution by participating in this project thanks to our commitment and the solutions we offer.”
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CISUTAC aims to remove current bottlenecks to enhance textile circularity in Europe. Its goal is to minimize the sector’s total environmental impact by developing sustainable, novel and inclusive large-scale European value chains.
“Effective textile recycling is one of the most important and complex core issues facing the textile industry in the years to come,” Sonja Zak, head of Circularity Initiative at Lenzing, said. “By pooling expertise and working with partners along the value chain, we can accelerate this vital process and forge ahead with finding solutions.”
Lenzing has been developing and promoting innovation in recycling for many years, including its Refibra and Eco Cycle, to provide solutions to the problem of global textile waste. To further promote the issue of circularity, Lenzing signed a cooperation agreement with the Swedish pulp producer Södra in 2021. In the course of this collaboration, the two global market leaders will pool their knowledge and jointly develop new processes for recycling used textiles.