From textile waste to building materials
How textile waste becomes new materials
What happens to textile waste once it has been collected? Some is reused. However, the vast majority still ends up as waste—often for incineration or export without genuine recycling. Retextil takes a different approach. Through a coherent value chain, textile waste is transformed into new materials with a long service life and practical applications.
A coherent value chain
Retextil works with a coherent approach.
By combining sorting, technology, and material expertise, textile waste is transformed into new building materials with a long service life. Here is how the process fits together—from collection to finished product.
01.
Collection – where does the textile waste come from?
Retextil works with textile waste from both businesses and public-sector stakeholders in Europe.
This may include surplus stock, discarded textiles, or materials that can no longer be reused in their original form.
With new EU requirements for separate collection of textiles, volumes are increasing significantly.
This creates a need for solutions that not only handle the waste, but also make it possible to use it at scale.
02.
Coarse sorting – the first step towards new use
After collection, the textiles undergo an initial coarse sorting.
Materials that can be reused directly are sorted out.
The rest is prepared for further processing.
This is where the foundation is laid for turning textile waste into a consistent and usable resource in production.
03.
Fine sorting – precision and material expertise
After coarse sorting, the textiles are separated even more precisely by fibre types and quality.
Using technology such as NIR scanning—combined with manual sorting—the materials are divided into specific fractions.
This ensures that the right materials move forward in the process and is crucial for producing stable and consistent building materials.
04.
From textile to raw material
The sorted textiles are converted into a new raw material through shredding and granulation.
Here, textile fibres are combined with plastic fractions to create a stable composite material with consistent properties.
This is at the core of Retextil’s approach to cross-cycling:
transforming textile waste into a new, usable raw material in other material cycles.
05.
Production – new materials take shape
The raw material is processed through extrusion into finished profiles and building materials.
The materials are used in structures such as decks, fences, and façade cladding, and are designed to be durable, maintenance-free, and weather-resistant.
This is where the value chain is completed—where textile waste becomes new materials with practical applications.
06.
Use – from waste to function
The finished materials are used in everything from decks and fences to façade cladding and other outdoor structures—both in private and professional projects.
The materials replace traditional solutions such as wood, while also giving new life to textiles that would otherwise have ended up as waste.
This is not textile-to-textile recycling, but cross-cycling: where the value in the material is preserved and converted into a new function with a long service life.
07.
A realistic approach to circularity
Textile-to-textile recycling features prominently in the debate—but in practice, only a small share of textile waste is suitable for that type of solution.
That is why Retextil works with a different approach: finding applications that can handle large volumes while creating durable products with real functionality.
It is not the ideal circular model—but it is a realistic and scalable solution.
A form of cross-cycling, where resources are utilised as effectively as possible and given new life in a new context.
08.
From waste management to value chain
Retextil works not only with materials—but with the entire value chain from waste to finished product.
By linking collection, sorting, documentation, and production, a solution is created that can work in practice and at scale.
It is this coherence that makes it possible to move textile waste from waste management to a genuine resource in both municipal and commercial systems.
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Would you like to learn more about how textile waste can be incorporated into new materials—or how the solution can be applied in practice?