CISUTAC will tackle current bottlenecks in the transition to circular textiles and clothing. For scale and significance, we focus on polyester, cotton & cellulosic fibres (together ca. 90% of textile materials) and products from 3 sub-sectors: garments, active goods and workwear. In this way, we will have a representative view on the challenges the textile sector is facing for circular transition. CISUTAC follows a holistic approach covering the technical, sectoral and socio-economic levels. We will provide systemic innovations at these levels and perform 3 pilots to demonstrate their feasibility and value: (i) Repair and disassembly; (ii) Sorting for reuse and recycling; (iii) Circular garments through fibre to fibre recycling and design for circularity. To realise these pilots, we will develop semi-automated workstations, analyse infrastructure and material flow, digitally enhance sorting operations and setup interventions with consumers. After the piloting phase, attention will be on the uptake of the results, by the sector, by the wider stakeholder group as well by the consumers. With (worldwide) leading brands and companies, CSOs, RTOs and EU associations, CISUTAC is truly EU-wide and covers the full novel circular value chain. Through the consortium, and further supported by the Transition Support Group with zz members, CISUTAC is strongly linked to ongoing initiatives allowing synergies and joint activities. This is essential for our implementation but also for leveraging the impact and enabling the shift towards a sustainable EU textiles & clothing, underpinned by circular material flows and supported by the wider stakeholders. CISUTAC will bring significant impact of scale via its innovations on repair, dismantling, sorting and fibre-to-fibre recycling. Realising this impact will lead to a reduction of ca. 975ktonCO2eq yearly and to new business activities and markets that together have a value of ca. €250mio and lead to ca. 1300 FTE, also social economy.

Nowadays, only 20% of the whole plastic production is recycled due to barriers such as the presence of complex fractions in the waste streams including contaminants or multilayer materials or the mix of plastics with other types of waste that cannot be sorted in a feasible way. This situation implies a high environmental impact when plastic waste is landfilled or incinerated, so new solutions other than mechanical recycling must be developed to significantly increase the amount of plastics being valorized into new feedstocks. PLASTICE was conceived to solve this need by developing a set of new valorization processes that are aligned with the most relevant roadmaps of chemical recycling technologies at European level. Therefore, main efforts will be devoted to the design, development and demonstration under real conditions together with EU waste managers of four valorization technologies: (i) MW-assisted pyrolysis; (ii) hydrothermal liquefaction; (iii) Combined gasification and chemical post-treatment and (iv) Cascade enzymatic hydrolysis. Moreover, PLASTICE overall approach will deploy innovative elements along the whole value chain with the objective of integrating green technologies for the new processes to become sustainable and closing the loop to deliver circular value chains around plastics (including textiles with plastic content). Therefore, PLASTICE works both upstream and downstream the valorization processes, integrating new sorting systems, quality upgrading technologies, digitalization tools and eco-design principles together with new business models linked to each step of the circular value chains. Following this approach, PLASTICE will impact on the amount of landfilled plastics and GHG emissions linked to process operation and fossil fuels-based feedstock. Its replication will be supported by contributing to the development of new standards and regulations, and by creating a community of followers supported by PLASTICE tools and consortium.