Resource Optimization and Sustainability for a Greener Digital Future
In the Made in Italy textile and fashion industry, adopting sustainable practices has become a global priority. The textile industry is responsible for about 4-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions and approximately 20% of water pollution. Every year, around 92 million tons of textile waste end up in landfills, with only a small percentage being recycled.
The growing demand for more eco-sustainable solutions, combined with increasingly strict European regulations, is pushing the sector to adopt circular models and innovative technologies to reduce its environmental impact. By 2030, textile companies will need to reduce natural resource consumption and significantly improve the recycling of materials, as outlined in the EU Textile Sustainability Strategy.
Our Contribution to the MICS Project
As mentioned in the article “Made in Italy Circolare e Sostenibile (MICS): Italtel’s Journey Towards a Sustainable Transition,” Italtel actively contributes to the MICS program with several projects aimed at promoting sustainability in the textile sector. In the SPOKE 1, Italtel collaborates with innovative solutions to optimize resources and promote digital sustainability, helping transform the textile sector towards a circular economy.
In particular, we are involved in Project 1.5 – Cross-sectoral Platform for Sustainable and Circular Textiles: This project focuses on supporting SMEs’ ecological transition towards circular models, reducing the use of primary resources and promoting recycling through legal, technological, and eco-design services.
Digital Waste Passport and the Digital Library
The Digital Waste Passport was created to recover pre-consumer textile waste, collecting essential information such as technical, chemical, and ecological properties of fibers. This tool supports the reuse and recycling of textile waste, transforming it into secondary raw materials, essential for a circular economy.
The Digital Library is the cross-sectoral platform that supports textile companies, but also those in other sectors such as automotive and construction, in utilizing secondary raw materials. It serves as a marketplace to value pre-consumer textile waste, ensuring traceability and facilitating the matching of demand and supply of reusable waste materials, optimizing waste management, and creating synergies between industries.
The benefits of the Digital Library are clear: from reducing primary material use with greater use of secondary raw materials to cutting waste management costs, thanks to a system that reduces landfill disposal, and improving company image by committing to sustainable practices and creating new industrial synergies and cross-sectoral innovations.
HybridLedger: the Cross-Sectoral Platform
HybridLedger is the platform developed by Italtel that integrates private blockchain technology to ensure traceability of textile products throughout their supply chain. This platform certifies the authenticity of data regarding the proper recycling of pre-consumer textile materials, a key step in ensuring a sustainable product lifecycle.
It enables the traceability of each product throughout its lifecycle, improves waste management in an environmentally friendly manner, and reduces landfill disposal.
Stakeholders and the Circular Textile Market
Stakeholders are crucial to the success of the platform and promoting the circular economy. We know that technology can do little without the information coming from the entire supply chain.
This project is a tangible example of how technology can integrate with the circular economy concept by fostering close collaboration with all stakeholders, addressing the modern challenges of digitalization and environmental impact.
The use cases are based on studies by the University of Florence and Italtel, which allowed the creation of a rich database built on the textile supply chain studies and surveys sent to companies. Each use case is evaluated and tested according to stakeholder needs, from processing, assembling, recycling, to waste disposal.
Professor Debora Giorgi, Project Leader of Project 1.5 and professor at the Department of Architecture, Textile, and Fashion at the University of Florence, highlights:
“Our project helps SMEs in the textile sector transition to circular models by offering solutions in key areas such as legal and technological support, eco-design, and industrial network creation. The collaboration with Italtel, the sole technological partner of MICS, is essential for integrating advanced expertise and helping SMEs access crucial resources, creating synergies between academia and industry.”
The Digital Library is designed to attract a wide range of stakeholders from various sectors, including:
- Fashion and Textiles: Brands and manufacturers who can reuse waste materials to create new collections or use them as raw materials.
- Furniture: Companies integrating recycled fabrics into furniture, upholstery, and décor.
- Art and Design: Designers and artists who use textile materials for creative works.
- Automotive: Manufacturers of car interior components using waste materials.
- Construction: Companies using recycled textiles for insulation or decorative elements.
- Social sectors: Non-profit organizations and local communities reusing materials for educational or social projects.
- Researchers: Experts exploring new uses for recycled textile materials and innovations in reuse.
- Public and local authorities: Promoting the circular economy and sustainable waste management.
- Startups and innovators: Emerging companies working on recycling technology.
- Media and influencers: Channels raising awareness about the importance of reuse and sustainable practices.
A Sustainable and Innovative Made in Italy
Italtel is committed to building a Made in Italy that not only excels in quality but also integrates sustainability principles. With the MICS project, we aim to become a global example of innovation and sustainability, combining digital technologies and circular economy to create a model that respects the environment and promotes the well-being of our planet.
In a future article, we will talk about our commitment to Project 1.8 – Advanced Human-Machine Interaction for Continuous Transformative Manufacturing and Robotic Systems of MICS, which aims to improve production through advanced human-machine interaction technologies.
