Resortecs, a leader in textile eco-design & end-of-life waste management, partners with Sioen, a global leader in technical textiles & protective clothing, to create workwear that combines durability with circularity. This collaboration is a major milestone in developing workwear that meets the highest safety standards while being designed for disassembly & recycling at the end of its lifecycle.
Under the agreement, Sioen will be integrating Resortecs’ Smart Stitch™ heat-dissolvable threads into its workwear production. This enables the creation of eco-designed garments that can be efficiently disassembled and recycled without compromising quality, comfort, nor protective functionality. Resortecs, on the other hand, will offer its comprehensive textile waste management service, that includes the disassembly and sorting of the discarded and returned textile products, as well as facilitating the recycling of the sorted textile materials.
Bart Vervaecke, CEO of Sioen’s Protective Clothing division, commented:
"Sioen together with Resortecs makes a big step in ready-to-dismantle garments with this cooperation. We are proud that with our support we can enable Resortecs to install their EU-based disassembly line. Resortecs’ technology will play an important role as a fully integrated part of our sustainable strategy at Sioen, drastically improving the end of life solution for our garments."
The beginning of a textile waste management circularity consortium in Europe
This collaboration lays the foundations of a Resortecs-led consortium in the Benelux and France regions for end-of-life textile waste management of workwear. The consortium will unite the efforts of workwear manufacturers, recyclers, government agencies, and Resortecs, to facilitate an operationally optimised and financially viable circular textile waste-management solution for complex apparel.
At the heart of the consortium is a Smart Disassembly™ line, with an annual processing capacity of 3000 tons, that will be placed and operated in Belgium by Resortecs by the end of 2025. The Smart Disassembly™ pre-processing line will integrate with existing sorting and collection infrastructure, as well as current and upcoming recycling technologies.
Resortecs’s holistic waste management solution uses an innovative technology to solve a critical challenge in textile recycling. By automatically eliminating trims that block recycling and reclaiming double the amount of a product’s textile content, up to 15x faster, Resortecs facilitates circularity on an industrial scale. As a result, high-performance workwear, along with other textile products like mattress covers and fashion garments, can now be disassembled and recycled more effectively.
Workwear manufacturers operating in Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and/or France can now take part in the consortium by simply producing their textile products with the heat-dissolvable Smart Stitch™ sewing threads. Once those textile products have reached their end-of-life, they are delivered to Resortecs for disassembly, sorting, and recycling.
A new circular standard for protective textiles
This collaboration marks a crucial step towards setting circularity as the new standard in the protective clothing and technical textiles sectors, with the goal of producing over half a million of fully recyclable garments with Sioen in the coming 3 years.
Cédric Vanhoeck, CEO and co-founder of Resortecs, commented:
"As we drive circularity in protective textiles, we’re challenging industry norms. Many believe that circular design can't align with safety standards, but we’re proving otherwise.This collaboration shows how innovation is key in the sector for building a more sustainable future without technical compromises."
By combining Sioen’s expertise in protective gear with Resortecs' cutting-edge Design-for-Disassembly technology, the partnership is setting a precedent for workwear that protects both workers and the environment.
"It’s galvanising to see one of the biggest workwear players in Europe supporting our efforts in creating a pan-European network of disassembly and pre-processing infrastructure. We are actively looking for other market leaders in other European regions such as DACH, Iberian Peninsula, and Scandinavia with whom we share the same vision in rejuvenating the European textile industry", added Cédric Vanhoeck.
About Resortecs
Resortecs® offers pre- and post-consumer textile waste management services for the fashion, workwear, bedding and automotive industry. The company offers heat-dissolvable stitching threads (Smart Stitch™) and thermal disassembly systems (Smart Disassembly™) that enable easy, automated textile recycling on an industrial scale. Resortecs’ mission is to lead the textile industry towards full circularity by facilitating Design-for-Disassembly (DFD).
About Sioen
Sioen is a global leader in technical textiles, colouring solutions and protective clothing, providing high-performance solutions for a wide range of industries, including workwear, firefighting, military, and forestry. Dedicated to innovation, Sioen combines advanced materials and cutting-edge designs to ensure maximum safety and durability, all while striving to promote sustainability through the development of circular products.
More information about Sioen can be found online at: https://sioen.com/en
