Focus area
Focus area 1: Scaling up high-quality textile recycling
Creating the economic and policy conditions needed to scale high-quality fibre-to-fibre recycling of post-consumer textiles in the Netherlands and build a viable domestic recycling sector.
Challenge, vision and goal
High-quality (fibre-to-fibre) recycling of non-rewearable post-consumer textiles is not yet an economically viable business model.
Consequence: This business remains unprofitable as long as the right enabling conditions are lacking.
Vision: Textiles discarded in the Netherlands are processed in the Netherlands.
Goal: Insight into earning capacity, in order to establish guarantees, a public and private transition fund and a bridging scheme with the government.
Approach and recent activities
- Developed a concept for a Market Maker - recycling has become a national topic of discussion and recyclers have set up the Dutch Recycling Group (DRG)
- Initiated the Textile Table (‘de Textieltafel’) - advisory report with recommendations to the ministry, followed by a Cabinet response
- Publicly raised the issue that high-quality textile recycling will not take off without targeted government intervention (publications in Het Parool and Milieu, and a letter to the House of Representatives, together with Modint)
Upcoming activities
- Support the DRG consortium with a (dynamic) model of earning capacity
- Frontrunners secure long-term / patient capital
- Encourage policy measures by the government (guarantee fund and/or bridging finance)