Closed Loop Fashion is collaborating with Fashion For Good, a platform that connects brands, producers, retailers, suppliers, and innovators to create sustainable solutions, to support their Strategic Supplier Initiative. This program is designed to help brands’ strategic suppliers implement market-ready technologies. Additionally, the collaboration supports Fashion For Good’s Feedstock Access Project, which aims to identify and build feedstock and product development partnerships between recycling innovators and key suppliers.
As part of the initiative, Closed Loop Fashion organized and facilitated a one-week site visit for Fashion For Good and three chemical recyclers – Ambercycle, Infinited Fiber and BlockTexx – to Indonesia, as the first South-East Asian country of the platforms Manufacturing Markets Gateway (MMG) Phase II. Closed Loop Fashion leveraged its extensive network and expertise in the Indonesian textile landscape, being one of the first and only companies working in the sector of textile waste management and circular supply chains for many years.
Infinited Fiber, based in Finland, uses cellulose carbamate technology followed by a viscose fiber spinning process to turn textile waste into their trademarked Infinna™ fibers, which can be blended with conventional fibers like cotton. BlockTexx, based in Australia, as a developer of a chemical separation technology designed to separate and recycle polyester and cotton materials, transforms textile waste consisting of fibre blends into a new resource. Ambercycle, based in the US, uses novel molecular regeneration technology to convert end-of-life textiles into virgin-grade polymers from textile waste branded as cycora®.
The visit aimed to introduce Indonesia’s textile landscape and establish networks between the recycling innovators with key industry players either capable of adopting market-ready technologies or to act as feedstock partners. The visit included Khushbu Maheswari, Fashion For Good’s Innovation Associate; Sini Ilmonen, the Feedstock Development Manager of Infinited Fiber; Graham Ross, the Co-Founder of BlockTexx; Moby Ahmed, the CTO & Co-founder of Ambercycle and Closed Loop Fashion team representatives Marina Chahboune, the Founder and Shanina Aradhana, the Comms Lead.
The productive week involved multiple strategic meetings with major players in the Indonesian textile industry and attendance at the Green Economy Expo, where Indonesia’s Circular Economy Roadmap was officially launched. The potential strategic partners were mainly located around Jakarta, Tangerang, as well as Central Java (Solo and Semarang). During the week, the group connected and visited the facilities of several key textile & apparel manufacturers, such as Indorama Ventures, PT PanBrothers Tbk & Group, Busana Apparel Group, PT. Asia Pacific Fibres Tbk (APF) and PT WinnerSumbiri Knitting as well as meetings with Bappenas, the Ministry of National Development Planning and the University of textiles STTT.
We are very excited about the networks built during the trip and the potential collaborations between suppliers in Indonesia with Fashion For Good platforms’s recyclers and innovators. The connections established not only promise to drive forward sustainable practices within the fashion industry but also highlight the commitment of all parties involved to innovate and collaborate for a more circular economy. These partnerships have the potential to transform the industry by integrating cutting-edge recycling technologies and innovative solutions that can reduce waste and enhance resource efficiency.
