Closing the Loop: An Interview with Helene Smits, Looper Textile

Please share some background on yourself and your company

My name is Helene Smits and I am Head of Business Development and Partnerships at Looper textile Co.

I was doing a project for a waste manager early 2014 looking into textile waste streams, and for this project I visited a textile sorting centre north of Amsterdam. I remember I was so shocked to see just how much textile waste we all generate. This place was filled top to bottom with discarded clothes, and for many of them there were no good solutions in place. I knew that on the manufacturing side, we are polluting the environment and using up enormous amounts of resources to produce all of these textiles. It was in this moment that I realized there was something fundamentally wrong with the fashion & textiles system and that there must be a better way of organizing this. A smarter way. Following this experience I set up the Circle Textiles Program at Circle Economy and since then it has been my personal and professional mission to develop new approaches that contribute to a circular, zero waste textile industry. After more than 10 years I am now back where it started for me, working to give used and unwanted textiles the best possible new life, this time at Looper Textile Co.

At Looper Textile Co. our focus is on keeping textiles in use for as long as possible, either by preparing them for reuse or by supplying quality feedstock for open and closed loop recycling. We collect used and unwanted garments from retailers, these could be leftovers, customer returns, faulty items, but also post-consumer garments collected in stores or via post. We also collect post-consumer textiles via street collection, charity shops and directly from consumers. We then sort the collected garments into more than 200 re-use categories, this accounts for about 50-60% of collected volumes. The other fraction is sorted for recycling or is diverted to responsible disposal, in case the materials are too contaminated. The recycling grades we can sort on composition and color with our automated near-infrared (NIR) sorting line. This technology enables us to sort for the precise specifications required by the textile-to-textile recyclers that are developing promising solutions for the future.

Looper Textile Co. is an independent company jointly owned by the H&M Group and REMONDIS. We are H&M Group’s sorting partner for the group’s garment collecting initiative in many markets worldwide and they have been an amazing partner. We however do not work exclusively with H&M and we are actively expanding our solutions to other retailers.

What are the primary challenges you've encountered in promoting textile recycling, and how have you addressed them to foster a more sustainable industry?

For the moment, the biggest installed capacity for textile recycling is mechanical or thermo-mechanical. Here we are facing the challenge of inconsistent feedstock quality and limitations of being able to sort out pure feedstock, especially from household postconsumer textiles, which are mostly blends. Another challenge is cost. Collection, sorting and preparing textiles for recycling are costly processes. Automated technologies already exist and will be key to reduce costs and achieve scale, but these technologies require significant investments. These are hard investments to make when currently the demand for material sorted feedstock is very low or even non existent. Many of the new and promising chemical fiber to fiber recyclers are expecting to have installed capacity in a few years at the earliest, and many are focusing on post industrial feedstock to fill their first plants. What can we do until then? We need brands and retailers to create the pull in the market. We need (mechanical) recyclers to also recycle post consumer feedstock, not just post industrial. We need spinners and weavers and knitters to develop the skills and capabilities to work with recycled fibers. We understand it is more challenging, but we have also seen that you can create beautiful and valuable products with post consumer recycled content. The opportunity is there!

We are addressing these challenges through fostering collaborations with recyclers and retailers and promoting trials for closed loop recycling. We are learning and developing our capabilities and ensure we are ready to scale when the time is right. Another focus has been to develop partnerships and solutions for open loop recycling, as these applications are most relevant in terms of volume at the moment.

What emerging trends do you foresee in sustainable fashion, and how should industry players adapt to these changes to remain competitive and responsible?

One key trend is the emergence of more and more fiber-to-fiber recyclers. In the past 10 years or so, many new (chemical) recycling technologies have been launched. Most are still operating at pilot or demo scale unfortunately. Unlocking the rather significant investments required to build scaled recycling plants has been challenging. Introducing mandatory recycled content as part of the new Ecodesign Directive could prove to be a game changer to de-risk and accelerate these investments. For brands and retailers, fostering collaboration with recyclers and enabling ecosystem partners and building supply chains able to adopt recycled materials are key strategies to successfully bring products with recycled content to market in the future.

Another major shift is coming from policy - the move towards extended producer responsibility (EPR) and Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). These policies will come into force in all EU member states, holding producers accountable for the recyclability, durability, repairability and the end-of-life impact of their textiles. Companies will need to integrate circularity into their supply chains, not just as a sustainability goal but as a compliance requirement. Several retailers, including H&M, already have their own voluntary take back schemes in place for end of life textiles. Having take back programs in place that pro-actively contribute to the collection of textiles could prove to be an advantage for producers as mandatory EPR schemes come into play.

What role do events like the Textiles Recycling Expo play in driving change and fostering collaboration within the industry?

Platforms like ReHubs and events like the Textile Recycling Expo play a critical role in driving change. They facilitate knowledge exchange and foster collaboration between brands, sorters, recyclers, technology providers, manufacturers and policymakers around textile recycling. This is much needed as we are still very much in a time of transition. We often find ourselves in a chicken and egg situation: Who makes the first move and who takes the biggest risk? Value chain collaborations and tangible offtake commitments can help us move past barriers and towards industry-wide adoption of circular practices. By bringing pioneering voices and innovative players together, I believe events like TRE help to accelerate the transition to this circular future.

Why should professionals, innovators, and businesses attend the Textiles Recycling Expo, and what opportunities can they gain from being part of it?

I believe the timing couldn’t be better for this first edition of the TRE. The industry has a real need for scalable recycling solutions and scaled adoption of recycled content in both open and closed loop applications. TRE will be the place for businesses to access cutting-edge innovations, engage relevant stakeholders directly, and gain insights into regulatory developments. It’s a unique space to forge partnerships and stay ahead in the evolving textile circularity landscape.