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Inovafil, with a consortium of 11 more international companies, shapes the ‘New Cotton’ project, created in 2020 to reuse consumer textile waste and transform it into recycled fibers made from cellulose. Since last October, these fibers have been reaching the consumer via Adidas – one of the partners in the consortium.
The project has a completion date scheduled for 2024, and Rui Martins, CEO of Inovafil, takes stock of the situation: “The project is halfway through, the Adidas collection has already been launched, which is on sale with some tracksuits made with Infinited Fiber fiber and organic cotton, made at Inovafil. Stella McCartney designed the pieces”. “We are now going to start producing pieces for H&M, this being the second phase of the project, which will be presented very soon”.
In May, Inovafil will host the planning meeting for the second phase of the New Cotton project. “All the companies involved in the project will meet at Inovafil – Mundifios for two or three days to discuss the project’s next phases. Last year the meeting was in Finland”, added Rui Martins.
“We have been supporting this Finnish fiber for a few years. Before joining the project, we carried out some internal developments”. “Infinna is a fiber produced from cellulose pulp that essentially comes from post-consumer clothing with a high percentage of cotton, but which can also pass through the use of agricultural waste such as crop surpluses”, explains the administrator.
“We are a spinning mill with great knowledge in fiber blends and yarn production, also with cellulose fibers. We transform fibers coming from Infinited Fiber into yarn”, recalls the administrator, stressing that they are the only Portuguese company represented in this European project.
The following companies are part of the consortium: Infinity Fiber Company, Aalto University, Fashion for Good, Adidas, Frankenhuis, H&M, Kipas Textiles, Revolve, RISE, and Xamk. The project was recently presented at the “Cellulose Fibers Conference”, in Cologne (Germany).