Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

The textile and apparel industry are undergoing a seismic change in response to concern about their environmental and ethical impact. Recycling is no longer enough and the industry is now focused on finding innovation that will work within a Circular Economy - that is one where resources are kept in use for as long as possible.These values are the roots of the apparel company Sitka which aim to offer their customer, garments made from natural fibres and most often organic cotton. In order to integrate the concept of circular economy into their product, Sitka would like to collaborate with CTT Group to identify potential solutions as well as partners to transform used cotton clothes into recycled cotton yarns for further use either in garments or in other applications.Indeed, though cotton is the most abundantly produced natural fiber with an estimated 23.4 million tonnes expected to be produced in 2017/2018, it is not without controversy in regards with both environmental and social impact such as extensive water use and use of pesticides.Therefore, Recycling Post Consumer Textiles (PCT), especially cotton ones, is attracting a great deal of interest from the apparel industry. A number of initiatives are emerging: these include Evrnu (US), Re:newcell (SE) and VTT Technical Research Centre (Finland) all at various stages of research and scaling up cotton regenerated yarns. The purpose of this project will be to establish a network of actors in Canada and demonstrate the feasibility of producing new cotton yarns from used cotton garments.