Could you each introduce yourselves and your organisations, and give readers a flavour of the session you'll be presenting together at the Textiles Recycling Expo EU?  

Thomas: My name is Thomas Große and I work in Volkswagen Group Innovation, which is basically the Group's research department where we work on research projects for all brands. I work there in the "Biomaterials and Polymers" sub-department, where we deal with all life phases of these two material groups. My focus topics at the moment are the sorting and recycling of plastics and textiles. Today, we are working on an innovative biotechnological approach to obtain a high-quality polyester from mixed used textiles that we can use for automotive components. However, Revital can certainly explain the approach better.

Revital: I’m Revital Nadiv, Co-Founder and CTO at Re-Fresh Global. Before starting Re-Fresh, I spent more than 20 years in the textile and fashion industry, working with global production and supply chains. In many ways, I was part of the problem before deciding to become part of the solution. Today, Re-Fresh Global's patented SMART-UP™ enzymatic process separates blended textile waste -especially cotton-polyester - and converts the cellulose fraction into high-value materials such as Re-Celloop™, while preserving polyester quality for further industrial use, commercialized as Re-San Pulp™. In short: new raw materials for industries such as automotive, cosmetics, packaging and nonwovens. Together with Volkswagen Group Innovation, we are demonstrating that that textile waste can become a beneficial / resource for the automotive industry. Working with Thomas has been a great example of how startups and large industrial players can bridge the gap between innovation and implementation.

The automotive sector isn't the most obvious destination for recycled textile waste but it's a compelling one. How did this collaboration between Volkswagen and Re-Fresh Global come about, and what made each of you want to pursue it?  

Thomas:  At Volkswagen, we are always interested in new innovative ideas and approaches that we can use to improve the sustainability of our products. Our role in research is to test these approaches and evaluate their potential. When it comes to the use of recycled materials, we are pursuing our own goals with our Group sustainability strategy "Regenerate+", such as using 40% circular materials by 2040. In addition, however, there is also the End-of-Life Vehicle Regulation, an upcoming EU legislation that will oblige us to use certain recyclate quotas. Such quotas also exist for other industries, such as the packaging industry, which is why there is likely to be a great demand for recycled materials in the future. The amount of waste in textiles is currently so large that we see the potential in it to get recycled material at low cost, but at the same time to reduce the "pile of waste", that currently being exported, landfilled or incinerated.  

Revital: From Re-Fresh Global’s perspective - German based company - the collaboration began with a simple question: how can we create local, high-value applications for the huge textile waste streams already available in Germany and Europe? Most textile production happens in Asia and most waste collection happens in Europe. It does not make sense to ship this waste around the world again and again. So we need to be smart! Why not regenerate raw materials from textile waste and reintroduce them into the value chain where we need them?  We proved that textile waste can be transformed locally into industrial materials with real demand. We have the skills. We have the machinery. And we still have industry here. The automotive sector is very big in Germany and became especially relevant because cars already contain more than 50 interior parts of  PET-based components, but not all of them can be replaced by mechanically recycled textile fibers (called usually “Shoody” fibers) For automotive applications, the material must be clean, sanitized, consistent, and able to meet demanding requirements such as fogging, acoustic performance, color consistency, and processability. This is where our Re-Sanpulp™ became a strong fit. We proved that recycled textile-derived PET fibers can be used in nonwoven and molded automotive parts, offering a circular alternative to conventional materials while supporting the direction Thomas mentioned: the growing need for recyclate Post Consumption waste components quotas, under future regulation. For us, the bigger vision is also strategic: wherever textile waste exists, there should be a local industrial use for the recovered materials. This reduces unnecessary transportation, strengthens local supply chains, and turns a waste problem into a scalable circular-material opportunity.  

Revital, Re-Fresh Global has developed technology for processing blended textile waste into usable materials. Can you give us a sense of where the technology stands today and what the most significant recent advances have been?  

Revital:  At Re-Fresh Global, our patented SMART-UP™ system separates cotton-poly blends and converts them into two high-value materials:   

● Re-SanPulp™, recycled fibers for nonwovens and spinning, &  

● Re-Celloop™, Advanced Cellulosic Material for applications such as cosmetics, packaging, and also wet spinning like Laycel.  

Our technology targets up to 50% cost savings and up to 85% lower CO₂ emissions compared to market materials. Today, our first product, Re-Sanpulp™ ( the synthetic output), is already at TRL 8 and is being commercially used in automotive, acoustic, and textile applications. We are now able to support monthly orders in the range of 10–25 tons, depending on the feedstock and application requirements. The second product - Re-Celloop™ ( the Natural output) , was launched only a few months ago, but we are already developing applications in cosmetics and exploring spinning routes such as lyocell. The most significant recent advance is that we moved beyond lab validation into real industrial use. What makes this especially important is how much we have achieved with relatively limited funding. With around ONLY €1.5 million raised, we have reached industrial validation, commercial traction, and collaborations with major customers such as Volkswagen. We are now fundraising to scale production further and prepare the licensing model for our SMART-UP™ technology - I really hope that more companies will see the opportunity with us.  

Thomas, from Volkswagen's perspective, what does it actually take to qualify and integrate a recycled textile-derived material into an automotive application and how does that process differ from working with conventional materials?  

Thomas :  The process itself is no different from conventional materials, because we want to make sure that we can meet the same quality standards. This means that the same test criteria are also applied to recycled material, for example resistance to media, UV, abrasion, emission, odor, etc. In the case of new sustainable materials, however, we now work with the material manufacturers at an early stage to see for which areas of application a material could be suitable and where it might not. Then we can also develop together in one direction.  

Blended textiles are notoriously difficult to recycle at scale. What are the biggest technical hurdles your collaboration has had to overcome, and how have you approached solving them together?  

Thomas: I think the biggest challenge is always to scale processes that work on a small scale to the next larger scale. There, the processes behave differently, you have to understand the machines and systems very precisely in order to be able to continue to control the processes. In the end, every detail, no matter how small, plays a role when it comes to the final material properties, but also the cost-effectiveness. In the cooperation with Re-Fresh, we were also able to work together as far as biotechnology, as we also have biotechnologists in the team in Group Innovation.  

Revital: Textile waste is difficult to recycle for a reason: Modern textile is blended and that won't go away so we have to deal with it!. They are a complex mix of fibers, finishes, colors, chemicals, elastane, buttons, zippers, coatings, and different constructions. The fibers themselves are extremely small and soft, which makes the physics of separation especially challenging. Our goal is  to comply with the standards of the customer - we are on top of every single step and we develop along the line with the customer. Because every textile fiber can have certain applications afterwards. Our advantage is that we come from years of experience in textiles and product development, so we understood not only the chemistry, but also thereal industrial pain points: which machines work, which do not, and what kind of reverse value chain this feedstock actually needs. The biggest challenge is that the infrastructure is not built yet / not there yet. We developed a very efficient Smartup™ microfactory with proven technology that can be deployed and used decentralized and supports the resilient value chains. Nevertheless, setting up infrastructure needs investment and we showed it worked but we can't do it alone. Therefore take this as an invitation.  

Scaling up is where many promising collaborations stall. What has the journey from proof of concept to real implementation looked like in practice, and what's been harder than expected?  

Thomas: In the time we have been working together, the scale has been gone from a few kilos to over a ton. In the beginning, we were only able to analyze smaller material samples, but now we are dealing with entire components that were manufactured on the series production lines. There are always surprises in research, and especially here, where we have changed the material concept of the component in addition to the use of recycled material, some properties naturally change, which have to be compensated for again, e.g. by adapting the process. All in all, however, we are still in a proof-of-concept and are unfortunately not yet in series production with the material.  

Revital: For us, the journey from proof of concept to real implementation became a clear three-step model that can be adapted by any OEM:  

1. Lab pilot / POC scale-up - up to around 1,000 kg, where we prove the basic material performance, separation quality, and process feasibility.  

2. Commercial pilot / capsule collection - up to around 20 tons, where the material is tested in real production conditions, together with Tier 1 partners, and against the relevant industry standards.  

3. Scale transition and offtake - where the process moves from project-based validation into an ongoing demand stream and supply agreement.  

With Volkswagen, we actually added a few more steps because we discovered more potential applications than expected. That opened the door to test additional parts and material routes, some of which are still under evaluation and cannot yet be disclosed.  The biggest breakthrough for us to scale up faster than usual, was to use proven technology. On the way we learned how to adapt and “hack” existing industrial equipment, which allowed us to move much faster from lab scale to pilot and industrial-scale production with selected partners in Europe. What was and by the way still is harder than expected was not only proving that the process can work at scale, but also convincing Tier 1 partners to collaborate actively and open the doors. For the material to move toward real automotive implementation, we need consistent quality, standard testing, and a scalable offtake model - but all partners along the value chain also need to adapt to the new regulatory direction and have the motivation to move. This is not yet always the case.  

This session sits at an interesting crossroads between the textiles and automotive industries. What do those two worlds have to learn from each other and what gets unlocked when they collaborate more closely?  

Thomas: We can certainly learn a lot from Re-Fresh in terms of dynamism and "startup mentality". I can imagine that it was surprising for Re-Fresh to get to know the large number of tests and the potential demands of large-scale production.  

Revital: Since I had already worked with large OEMs in the past on product development, I did not expect scale-up to be easy, especially in an industry with so many decision-makers along the way. I believe one of the reasons we were able to work successfully with Volkswagen is that they have a structured innovation platform through Group Innovation and Konnect, their innovation arm in Tel Aviv, where we were first screened. This helped reduce the natural gap between a startup and a large OEM - a gap that can otherwise be very challenging because the working methods are so different. When you want to implement real innovation and solve complex problems that do not yet have existing solutions, you need dedicated structures inside the corporation that know how to test, validate, and integrate new technologies. This is exactly where Group Innovation played an important role and allow this pilot and POC! What we learned together is also the difference between industrial textiles and textiles coming from clothing waste. These are completely different feedstock with different fiber sizes, thicknesses, finishes, coatings, and material behaviour. To make them suitable for industrial automotive applications, you need both textile expertise and automotive engineering expertise. When these two worlds collaborate closely, you can unlock a new circular value chain - turning post-consumer textile waste into materials that meet real industrial standards.  

To close, what brings you both to the Textiles Recycling Expo EU, and what do you hope the wider textiles recycling community takes away from hearing about this kind of cross-industry collaboration? 

Thomas: I would like to show that with creative new ideas, new technologies, technically sophisticated products can also be created from something like old clothing. In the circular economy, we need to think across industries and networks to become more sustainable, but also to strengthen resilience in our supply chains and become less dependent on fossil raw materials.  

Revital:  When we started Re-Fresh Global, this is exactly the moment we were waiting for: the moment when textile recycling in Europe becomes a real official industry! Regulation is moving in the right direction, but in practice the system is still not working fast enough - and that is why we are here. We hope to meet partners who understand our real value: not only that we found a recycling solution, but that we have built the knowledge and expertise needed to implement these solutions at industrial scale.  Our technology is ready, but the bigger question is who is truly ready to use recycled materials - not just to talk about circularity or add a few percent where the material behaves exactly like virgin, but to actively help build a reverse value chain. When more companies are brave enough to move like Volkswagen, I believe change will happen much faster. But it requires innovation teams inside large organizations who are willing to push, challenge, and fight for implementation. Startups can solve technical problems, but we cannot manage the entire value chain alone. I am very happy that this event brings together the textile recycling community in one place. We invite everyone to visit us at our booth, see the results, and even touch and examine the materials up close. Together with Volkswagen Group Innovation we demonstrated how post-consumer textile waste can move from lab idea to real automotive implementation. Working with Thomas has been especially valuable - he may not have come originally from textiles, but today he understands this field deeply and brings the exact industrial mindset needed to connect textile recycling with Volkswagen’s circular car vision. The session is about what really happens when a startup technology meets automotive standards, scale, and reality.