The first meeting of the consortium that will carry out the RUVERTEX Public-Private Partnership project (CPP2024-011465), ‘Green routes for the recycling and use of polymers from textile waste’, has taken place. This is a three-year project funded by the State Research Agency, the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and the European Union (NextGenerationEU/PRTR). Julio Pérez, an engineer at ACTECO, the company leading the project, is the project manager, with Joaquín Coronas as principal investigator at the Aragon Nanoscience and Materials Institute (INMA) at the University of Zaragoza-CSIC. Also participating on behalf of INMA are Professor Patricia Gorgojo, postdoctoral researchers José Miguel Luque and Clara Skuse, and Sara Añón, who will be doing her doctoral thesis at RUVERTEX.
The relevance of the project has to do with the fact that around 15 kg of clothing per person per year are produced worldwide. During the production of fabrics and clothing, 12% of the raw material is lost, only 15% is recycled after use, and most (also after use), 73%, ends up in landfills or incinerated. In addition, every year, the handling of fabrics (e.g. during washing) produces half a million tonnes of microfibres (microplastics), which can easily end up dispersed in the waters of lakes, rivers and oceans. In fact, it is estimated that between 2026 and 2050, some 15 million tonnes of microfibres from textiles will be dumped into the oceans.
RUVERTEX’s objective is to incorporate scientific and technical developments generated at INMA that can be validated at ACTECO in order to achieve, under green chemistry conditions, an innovative and attractive solution for the textile waste market. This waste contains significant amounts of valuable polymers (such as polyamide, polyester and cellulose) that can be reincorporated into industry as raw materials (instead of being incinerated or sent to landfill) to make new fabrics, be used in the automotive industry or in nanotechnology developments, among other things.
In short, RUVERTEX will develop methodologies that allow textile waste to be reused through the so-called chemical route, contributing significantly to reducing the environmental impact associated with the production and consumption of fabrics and clothing.
26-02-2026
