Cooperation and a circular textile chain
Blycolin is part of and co-founder of CIBUTEX. Together with textile service companies Edelweiss Groep (The Hague), Lamme Textile Management (Amsterdam) and Nedlin (Esloo), we have joined forces with textile supplier Dibella.
A completely circular textile branch: that is the goal of CIBUTEX. The cooperation CIBUTEX, founded earlier this year, wants to bring about a fully circular textile branch with a concentration of forces.
Sustainability is in Blycolin’s DNA. We follow several principles of circular economy by using long-life textile and renting this out, maintaining it well and re-using it whenever possible. But what happens to the textile when it has reached the end of its lifespan? At Blycolin, we already have several distribution channels for this, while having participated in a number of great initiatives as well. Upscaling innovations and making them big requires a lot more rejected textile. Our partner laundries had the same questions: “How do we add more value to discarded textile?” So, cooperation seemed like a great idea and that is how the idea for Cibutex was conceived earlier this year.
New life for linen
CIBUTEX sees discarded linen as a valuable resource that can still be used after its actual product life cycle. From the rejected products, the fibers are recovered to be used in new textile products. Through upcycling, the production of new textile should be made possible. However, we want to take CIBUTEX even further than that. The idea is that all other textile companies join us to achieve a maximum effect across the entire industry.
What is being recycled?
CIBUTEX takes care of the collection of the textile, the transport to recycling partners and the payment for the discarded material. The revenues from recycling are shared equally among the partners, as well as partially invested in research and development.
For recycling, CIBUTEX cooperates with recycling partners that recycle the textile in various ways. This is done with textile that is made of 100% cotton or cotton blends wih a maximum of 50% polyester with the color white. So, bed sheets, table linen and bath linen. Separating this linen is essential. The better we can sort the raw material, the higher the value of the rejected goods. This is used for Machanical and Chemical Recycling.
CIBUTEX – The next step towards a closed textile chain
CIBUTEX wants to contribute to a sustainable development in the textile branch and enable a closed textile chain. The cooperation want to help reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 9, 12, 13 and 17 of the United Nations. Besides decreasing textile waste, minimizing social, environmental and climate effects connected to the production of textile fibers and textile are also very important for the cooperation.