GAIKER Promotes Circularity in the Textile Sector Through the European CircularTexEFA Project
The project will develop a cross-border value chain to promote the reuse and recycling of textile waste through innovative circular economy solutions
GAIKER Technology Centre, a member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance (BRTA), is participating in the CircularTexEFA project, “Textile Circularity in the Cross-Border Area: Optimisation and Cooperation for the Sorting, Pre-treatment and Recycling of Textile Waste”, a project co-funded by the European Union through the Interreg VI-A Spain-France-Andorra Programme (POCTEFA 2021–2027).
The initiative, which will run between 2026 and 2028, brings together eleven organisations from Spain and France with the aim of establishing a circular textile value chain at a cross-border level. This will be achieved through the organisation of textile waste collection, reuse and recycling systems, while promoting more sustainable management of these materials.
CircularTexEFA has been launched to address the challenge of reducing the volume of textile waste sent to landfill or incineration by promoting its recovery and reintroduction into new production cycles. To this end, the project brings together the various stakeholders across the textile value chain—including industry, social economy organisations, waste management companies, public administrations and technology centres—to generate synergies and accelerate the transition towards more circular business models.
The methodology is structured around an initial phase of territorial analysis and assessment of textile waste collection and treatment systems, together with an evaluation of the technologies available for their transformation. Based on these findings, an action plan will be designed for the deployment of an efficient cross-border value chain. Subsequently, a pilot demonstration project will be launched, covering all stages of the process, from the collection and sorting of textile waste to its transformation into secondary raw materials through mechanical, thermo-mechanical and chemical recycling technologies, as well as the manufacture of new products using recycled materials.
Within the project, GAIKER, as an expert in recycling and circular economy solutions, is contributing to the preparation of both the study and the action plan for the development of the cross-border textile recycling value chain. In addition, it will investigate and demonstrate chemical recycling technologies for post-consumer polyester textile waste, with the aim of producing high value-added products that can be reintroduced into industrial applications.
