When the expression “making something new with something old” takes on its full meaning. It’s no secret that the textile industry is one of the most polluting in the world. From the manufacturing process of raw materials to the end of life of used garments, which end in vast majority buried or incinerated after being thrown in the trash according to the Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe). An incredible mess that Induoa company based near Lille, intends to put an end to it thanks to a unique process making it possible to produce new textile fibers from used clothing.
We’re not going to inundate you with numbers, but it’s still useful to give one or two to realize the windfall represented by used clothes. Every year, Europeans empty their cupboards of four million tonnes of textiles, only 10% of which are resold second-hand. The rest is more or less well collected and sorted according to the country. In France, we are not bad, with 244,000 tonnes collected in 2021, 71% of which were sorted according to the Ministry of Ecology. Except that only a third is recycled. “It’s the sorting stage that poses the most problems for recycling textiles,” says Pauline Guesné, co-founder of Induo. “The batches of textiles arrive most of the time mixed in recycling, without differentiating between synthetic fibres, vegetable or animal fibres,” she adds.
“We take the bulk, everything that the others don’t want”
If this is a hindrance to existing processes, which recycle synthetic into synthetic and cotton into cotton, Induo has found the solution. “We take the bulk, everything that the others don’t want, without having to sort it. The textiles are crushed and reduced to powder before being subjected to a chemical process which will isolate the cellulose of the fibers from the other components”, explains Pauline Guesné. At the end of the chain, this technology, now patented and called Refact, makes it possible to produce “new” viscose fiber. This fiber then goes through the classic process, passing through the hands of a spinner and then a weaver, until the final stage of confection. “The properties of this fiber are the same as for a virgin fiber, and it is also 100% recyclable”, specifies the co-founder of Induo.
The company recognizes that its Refact process, like any recycling process, is not neutral for the environment. It consumes water, energy, uses chemicals. Except that the harm is less. “By analyzing a life cycle on yarn, our fiber is six times more ecological than cotton and twice as much as virgin viscose”, promises Pauline Guesné, adding all the same that “the best for the ecology being to put the clothes back rather than put them to recycle”. The other “wolf” is an additional cost of 15% compared to virgin fibers. However, the entrepreneur does not see this as an obstacle to the sale of her product: “the biggest, like H&M or Inditex, have big goals in terms of recycling and to date, the demand is far greater than the supply”.
The following ? Induo assures it, its technology is on point. It remains to industrialize the process and it is not an easy task. With the help of the State and Amazon, via its incubator, Induo is working to release its first industrial pilot by 2026 in the form of a “mini-factory” costing seven million euros. But the ambition is much greater. By 2030, the company plans to build a 300 million plant in France that will allow it to produce 80,000 tonnes of recycled viscose fibers per year.