CISUTAC Newsletter - Final Issue

🎬 Our final CISUTAC video is live!

Over the past 4 years, the CISUTAC consortium has worked to move circularity in textiles from concept to practice, and this film brings that journey together.

From a semi-automated zipper repair station developed with Kringwinkel, Gentle Systems, and Decathlon, to thermo-mechanical PET recycling at Centexbel, to decision support tools and future scenario planning from RISE, the project has demonstrated that real solutions exist, at scale, today.

But CISUTAC was never just about technology. It was about people: the workers gaining new skills in repair, the consumers choosing second-hand, the policymakers and city authorities building the conditions for a circular economy to thrive.

Watch the video

CISUTAC's Final Results for a Circular European Textile Sector

For four years, CISUTAC has worked across the European textile value chain to tackle one of the sector's toughest challenges: how to make textiles and clothing genuinely circular, at scale, from design to end of life. Bringing together brands, recyclers, social enterprises, technology providers, researchers and policymakers, CISUTAC has piloted new repair and recycling technologies, studied what actually drives consumers to reuse and repair, and translated four years of evidence into a set of shared visions for EU textile policy.

As the project comes to a close, the final article brings together CISUTAC's final results, organised around three themes: the innovations developed to make textiles more sustainable, the work done to foster circular behaviours among consumers and citizens, and the forward-looking guidance CISUTAC leaves behind for the sector and policymakers.

Read the full article

CISUTAC wraps up at the ECOSYSTEX Conference

On 22-23 September, CISUTAC partners presented the final results of the project at the ECOSYSTEX Conference in Antwerp, Belgium! After four years of work across the full circularity spectrum, a few key messages stood out: data, standards and Digital Product Passports are key enablers for textile circularity, reuse and repair are already delivering results, recycling still faces real technical and economic hurdles, and no single solution will get us there: collaboration is the way forward.

CISUTAC at the Textiles Recycling Expo

In June, Centexbel and Textile ETP attended the second edition of the Textiles Recycling Expo in Brussels, Belgium. The event gathered key players from across the textile recycling value chain. Partners took the opportunity to share the project's latest developments, connect with peers, and discuss CISUTAC's core objectives.

CISUTAC-repaired jackets are now being sold across Antwerp

Kringwinkel is now selling CISUTAC-repaired jackets across all their stores in Antwerp, and each item is getting its own barcode before it goes out the door! The barcodes now allow them to track exactly how many CISUTAC-repaired jackets are sold, across which stores, and over time. That data helps them understand what's working, demonstrate the real-world impact of textile repair at scale, and build the evidence base for circular business models in the second-hand sector.

CISUTAC presented at the Urban Agenda Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement

In Spring, ACR+ participated in the Urban Agenda Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement (UAPP) meeting in Haarlem, in the Netherlands. ACR+ presented the CISUTAC Public Procurement Guidelines for Textiles, developed to support the uptake of circular textiles through public procurement while contributing to an overall reduction in textile circulation.

CISUTAC presented at the SOLSTICE regional event in Berlin

In May, Gentle Systems participated in a panel discussion organised as part of SOLSTICE’s regional event in Berlin, Germany, on how different regions and sectors can work together to scale textile repair and reuse. They showcased our modular, semi-automated zipper repair workstation developed as part of the project, which reduces repair time from over 40 minutes to just a few, making the process faster, more precise, and accessible to non-experts.

CISUTAC at Techtextil

In April, Centexbel presented CISUTAC at the Techtextil Forum, highlighting the latest results, including our work on PPE recycling. Thanks to CISUTAC’s new workstation, firefighter suits, made from complex materials, are now easier to recycle, as it maximises the recovery of pure aramid cloth pieces. Several other partners, including EREMA Group and Textile ETP, were also discussing CISUTAC project results and objectives at their stand at the fair.

ECOSYSTEX, the European Community of Practice for a Sustainable Textile Ecosystem, launched in early 2023, now counts 101 EU-funded member projects, including textile-related skills and education projects.

Since our previous newsletter issue, we welcomed 11 new projects!

ECOSYSTEX Conference 2026: Circular Textiles Beyond Recycling

The fourth ECOSYSTEX Conference took place in Antwerp, Belgium, from 22 to 24 September 2026, in collaboration with the University of Antwerp. The event brought together professionals from industry, research, policy and design to look beyond recycling, the sector's most familiar answer to circularity, and explore what else it takes to make textiles truly circular.

This year's edition was co-organised with six EU-funded projects: CISUTAC, Circula-TEX, SOLSTICE, FABRIX, JUST FASHION and CRAFT-IT4SD. Together they shaped the programme, presenting their results and taking them to the table in hands-on workshops on topics ranging from Digital Product Passports and EPR to local pilots, industrial symbiosis and craft-based business models.

With more than 130 participants joining in Antwerp, the conference featured policy dialogues with EU institutions, the official launch of Textile ETP's Bioeconomy Innovation Strategy for the European Fibres, Textiles and Apparel Industry, and site visits across the city, from the CISUTAC pilots at Kringwinkel Antwerp to a Fashion & Sustainability Walk with MoMu Fashion Museum Antwerp.

Read the highlights of the conference

The ECOSYSTEX Insights Series continues!

Explore the latest in textile sustainability and circularity research and innovation on 16 October 2026! This 25th ECOSYSTEX webinar will highlight four EU-funded projects working on skills development, vocational education and training for the Textile, Clothing, Leather and Footwear (TCLF) sectors. The webinar will show how IMASUS, SEiSC, 3DP-STeF and TechStyle are building the skills the workforce needs for the green and digital transition, from sustainable materials and smart clothing entrepreneurship to 3D printing and artificial intelligence.

Participants will learn about key project results, ongoing work and practical tools being developed across Europe, and can put questions directly to project representatives during dedicated Q&A sessions.

Register for the ECOSYSTEX Insights #25

Discover the upcoming ECOSYSTEX events

Since our last newsletter issue, four other dissemination webinars have already been organised, presenting the different projects that make up the ECOSYSTEX community, their objectives and outcomes. If you could not join us for these events or if you would like to watch them again, the recordings are available below:

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No. 101060375.

You are receiving this email because you subscribe to our news alerts.