The companies Confecciones Oroel and Nippon Gases have signed a collaboration agreement to commit to the establishment of a new circular economy system. Through this agreement, with a duration of three years -until December 2024-, they have agreed to advance in the project called ECOROEL, an ambitious plan that aims to make the most of the textile material already used and give it a second useful life.
The main objective of the ECOROEL project, whose full title is Research and development of new personal protective clothing for the establishment of a circular economy model, is to generate applied knowledge in the field of eco-design of technical personal protective clothing for its subsequent integration into a circular economy model to be determined.
The OROEL brand of protective clothing, with more than 40 years of history, is working to develop a new range of sustainable products through the eco-design system, achieving recyclable technical protective clothing and the use of textile waste.
The recycling process
To achieve this purpose, a five-stage recycling process for these garments has been developed and will be carried out by OROEL. The first of these, known as Collection, would consist of collecting the work clothes of Nippon Gases employees that are no longer suitable for their use.
This would be followed by a sorting process. At this point, Oroel would separate and classify the recovered textiles according to specific characteristics such as the type of raw materials they are made of or the conditions in which they are found.
The third point to follow in this plan is the elimination of improper materials. These are those non-textile materials and elements that prevent their pre- and post-treatment by textile carving to obtain fibers. In this case, they would be extracted from the garments for subsequent disposal.
Defibration, the penultimate step, would consist of the development of mechanical or chemical processes to convert these recycled materials back into fibers.
Finally, with Reuse, the resulting fiber mixtures would be obtained, to which, depending on their final use, virgin or recycled materials would be added, either for the development of textile products or for plastic products.
Nippon Gases, a company that manufactures and markets industrial, medical and food gases, is the leading company in the sector. It has the peculiarity of generating a large amount of post-consumer textile waste which, in turn, can be used for the purpose of developing new personal protective clothing in a circular economy model.
For its part, and through this agreement, Nippon Gases has committed to facilitate that its employees, once they have used their respective garments without the possibility of a new reuse, have a system to return them. In addition, through this agreement, it has agreed to promote these practices in order to give the garments a second useful life. Previously, the collection of these textile products and the subsequent destruction of the waste generated were carried out by contracting an external service without any benefit for environmental sustainability.
Objective: circularity
With the signing of this agreement by both companies, the aim is to achieve circularity in the treatment of these work garments. Oroel has proposed three specific objectives and has undertaken to develop them for their subsequent integration into Nippon Gases' workwear.
In short, Oroel will study the design of the garments supplied to increase their durability, repairability and recyclability. The second objective will be based on the optimization of the textile waste management and transformation system, focusing on the study of the logistics chain of post-consumer textile products. Finally, work will be done on the supply of non-PIE workwear made from recycled fabrics.
With these guidelines, both Oroel and Nippon Gases aim to develop a new circular model where post-consumer garments can be reused and reused both to implement environmental benefits and mitigate the effects of waste that are produced by human action.
The main objective of the ECOROEL project, whose full title is Research and development of new personal protective clothing for the establishment of a circular economy model, is to generate applied knowledge in the field of eco-design of technical personal protective clothing for its subsequent integration into a circular economy model to be determined.
The OROEL brand of protective clothing, with more than 40 years of history, is working to develop a new range of sustainable products through the eco-design system, achieving recyclable technical protective clothing and the use of textile waste.
The recycling process
To achieve this purpose, a five-stage recycling process for these garments has been developed and will be carried out by OROEL. The first of these, known as Collection, would consist of collecting the work clothes of Nippon Gases employees that are no longer suitable for their use.
This would be followed by a sorting process. At this point, Oroel would separate and classify the recovered textiles according to specific characteristics such as the type of raw materials they are made of or the conditions in which they are found.
The third point to follow in this plan is the elimination of improper materials. These are those non-textile materials and elements that prevent their pre- and post-treatment by textile carving to obtain fibers. In this case, they would be extracted from the garments for subsequent disposal.
Defibration, the penultimate step, would consist of the development of mechanical or chemical processes to convert these recycled materials back into fibers.
Finally, with Reuse, the resulting fiber mixtures would be obtained, to which, depending on their final use, virgin or recycled materials would be added, either for the development of textile products or for plastic products.
Nippon Gases, a company that manufactures and markets industrial, medical and food gases, is the leading company in the sector. It has the peculiarity of generating a large amount of post-consumer textile waste which, in turn, can be used for the purpose of developing new personal protective clothing in a circular economy model.
For its part, and through this agreement, Nippon Gases has committed to facilitate that its employees, once they have used their respective garments without the possibility of a new reuse, have a system to return them. In addition, through this agreement, it has agreed to promote these practices in order to give the garments a second useful life. Previously, the collection of these textile products and the subsequent destruction of the waste generated were carried out by contracting an external service without any benefit for environmental sustainability.
Objective: circularity
With the signing of this agreement by both companies, the aim is to achieve circularity in the treatment of these work garments. Oroel has proposed three specific objectives and has undertaken to develop them for their subsequent integration into Nippon Gases' workwear.
In short, Oroel will study the design of the garments supplied to increase their durability, repairability and recyclability. The second objective will be based on the optimization of the textile waste management and transformation system, focusing on the study of the logistics chain of post-consumer textile products. Finally, work will be done on the supply of non-PIE workwear made from recycled fabrics.
With these guidelines, both Oroel and Nippon Gases aim to develop a new circular model where post-consumer garments can be reused and reused both to implement environmental benefits and mitigate the effects of waste that are produced by human action.