Techtera facilitates the recovery of industrial textile waste

In the age of the circular economy, it's no longer possible to ignore the issue of recycling or reusing textile production waste. In fact, as of January 1, 2025, landfilling skips containing more than 30% textile waste is no longer permitted!

Today, we have very general data on the subject, provided by ADEME (which counted 34,000 tons of textile production offcuts in France in 2023). But these data needed to be refined locally to enable real recovery of this waste in the field.

Outre Mode Grand Ouest, union of a major garment making region which has launched initiatives in this field, Techtera, the competitiveness cluster dedicated to the French textile industry, has also tackled the subject.

At the heart of France's leading textile region

And Techtera was well placed to make its contribution, too. Created 20 years ago in response to the French government's first call for applications for competitive clusters, Techtera coordinates a network of textile companies, research laboratories, technical centers, universities and business schools to boost the sector's innovation potential. Based near Lyon, it is at the heart of France's leading textile region, accounting for 27% of national sales, with a cross-section of all professions (spinners, millers, weavers, knitters, finishers, garment makers, etc.).

And it's as part of the strategic and technological roadmap it submits every four years to the State for renewal of its label, that the subject of production waste has been invited. "There's a real challenge to qualify and massify textile deposits on the one hand, and to understand the capacities and specifications of recovery players on the other, in order to be able to build viable recovery chains around these deposits", explains Julie Rafton Jolivet, Techtera's deputy general delegate.

The competitiveness cluster had already launched initial initiatives back in 2018, with first listings of textile deposits in the region and the organization of a first event with valorizers. But the subject really began to take shape in 2023, when Techtera secured the support of the Greater Lyon Metropolis to "industrialize" a genuine process for mapping production waste and dead stock in textiles. This action is part of the "recycling and circular economy" axis of its roadmap.

A robust tool

The cluster then developed a robust tool "to quantify and characterize production waste both by material type (polyester, cotton, polyester/cotton, polyamide, glass fibers, others) and by form (threads, full-width fabrics, yokes, selvedges, cut-outs, false selvedges, weaving...).

Once this methodology has been perfected, Techtera wants to deploy it in the field on a "wider scale" than that of the Lyon metropolitan area. An industry agreement was signed in 2024 by the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region, involving Techtera, the Institut Français du Textile Habillement (IFTH) and Unitex, the region's trade association. It comprises four axes, one of which involves managing and adding value to post-production textile material and is entrusted to Techtera.

"It's within this framework, with the support of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, that we've been rolling out our mapping to companies in the region since last year, describes Julie Rafton Jolivet (Techtera). It's a voluntary diagnostic approach. We make the tool available to regional companies free of charge. The data collected allows us to feed large masses but is not communicated on an individual basis: the result is totally confidential and allows us to make a link with value-adding avenues".

After an interview with the companies to understand their activity and validate the existence of industrial offcuts, Techtera visits the production sites to support them in using the methodology and characterize (materials and formats) their deposits.

Objective: massify data

"This enables us to quantify and qualify the tonnages of production offcuts and dead stock, says Julie Rafton Jolivet. One of the aims of this massification approach is to act on the economic viability of recovery."

In 2024, 67 companies have been made aware of the issue, representing a mix of SMEs and major groups and their various professions (milling, weaving, knitting,garment making...). 57 sites have been diagnosed and 25 maps finalized. 540 tonnes of annual production offcuts, i.e. 45 tonnes per month, are identified and broken down by material type and format. 185 tons of dormant stock have also been identified. In 2025, Techtera is repeating the operation with a target of 70 companies, to be able to finalize a more global snapshot at the end of the year.

In 2024, the cluster has also begun to address the target of potential valorizers of textile deposits (industrial waste and dead stock). 35 recovery players were surveyed, half of whom are reuse players, the others offering mechanical recycling (29%), chemical recycling (15%) or both (1%).

"The idea was to understand, depending on their reuse, chemical or mechanical recycling fashion, their waste recovery conditions, capacities and constraints", explains Julie Rafton Jolivet (Techtera).

But as this first draft was not sufficiently representative of the sector as a whole, the operation is continuing in 2025 to arrive at a more accomplished result.

Reach out to as many companies as possible

Techtera's action is indeed aimed at bringing together as many companies as possible to irrigate the industrial waste recovery chain. To this end, the cluster has already organized a B-to-B business convention on November 27, again with the support of the Metropole Grand Lyon, where the first results of the mapping were presented to companies in the sector.

"We brought in players from the chemical mechanical recycling and reuse sectors. Our aim was to enable companies to meet each other, and the results exceeded our expectations, with 120 participants and over 200 appointments", explains Julie Rafton Jolivet.

For the occasion, Techtera published a guide to textile recovery methods for holders, which was distributed in hard copy during the convention. The guide can now be downloaded from the Techtera website. "In particular, we make recommendations on the type(s) of recovery (recycling or reuse) best suited to the characteristics of its deposits, and the least impacting in terms of carbon footprint", explains Techtera's Deputy Managing Director. The guide will be updated this year in a 2025 edition, to be released on November 26, 2025, at a second business convention, again held in Lyon.

Digital tool

The projects led by Techtera have already enabled concrete progress to be made on the issue of industrial textile waste. But Techtera's Managing Director is also aware of the road ahead. "We need to structure value chains around material preparation and logistics, for example, identify the bottlenecks that need to be removed to facilitate recovery, and develop technological solutions to recover complex materials, etc." she stresses. And she cites a specific example. "We need to increase our capacity to move from a demonstrator scale, for example, on chemical recovery, to industrialized processes."

In the meantime, "engaging in one-off or regular recovery partnerships will not necessarily be a source of income or significant short-term savings for a textile manufacturer", concludes the practical guide to textile waste recovery routes for holders, published by Techtera. But in any case, it "will enable them to optimize their inventories, streamline their internal processes and become part of an extended producer responsibility dynamic, in line with their values and CSR policy". This unavoidable path is imposed on Made in France, driven not only by regulations but also by the demand of a more eco-responsible consumer.

To register for the second business convention on November 26: information & registration at ccadieutechtera[point]org