The fashion industry has struggled to reduce its impact on the environment as its “take, make, dispose” model has come under greater scrutiny in recent years. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, more than US$500 billion of value is lost every year due to a lack of recycling and underuse of clothes. Meanwhile, textiles production accounts for 1.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually.But a new project led by pioneering players in the fashion and textile industries spells hope for the future of sustainable fashion.The New Cotton Project sees leading brands H&M and Adidas join a consortium of manufacturers, suppliers, innovators and research institutes in a bid to change the lifecycle of clothing. Clothing rebornThe world-first project is spearheaded by Finnish biotechnology group Infinited Fiber, which regenerates textile waste into unique, cellulose-based fibres.In a process that takes less than 24 hours, textile waste, or even cardboard and agricultural waste, is put through a chemical process which removes dyes and other fibres from materials such as polyester and nylon, Infinited Fiber Company’s co-founder and CEO Petri Alava explained. After the purification process, a relatively pure cellulose remains. “Then we are doing our magic,” Alava told Inside Retail. “We have a process called carbonation … connecting the cellulose with urea, which is an animal feed grade chemical, it’s safe to use. And at that stage, we get nitrogen bonding with cellulose, which makes the fibre very, very unique.”Then with the help of chemistry, the cellulose is transformed into liquid form and is extruded or wet spun into brand new fibres.“What’s unique is that the fibres we are creating look and feel like cotton. It’s a brand new fibre so we don’t suffer from the traditional problems of mechanical recycling … the consumer doesn’t need to be making any compromises in terms of quality,” Alava said.Manufacturers Inovafil, Tekstina and Kipas will produce yarns, woven fabrics and denim using the regenerated fibres before Adidas and companies within the H&M Group design, manufacture and sell the clothing.At the end of life, recycling company Frankenhuis will sort and pre-process the textile waste used, while research institutes will collect and analyse data to ensure continuous improvement of the processes. Slowing down fast fashionAs one of the two major fashion brands involved in the project, the H&M Group told Inside Retail it is dedicated to changing the way fashion is made and consumed.“In our drive to become fully circular, one of our key goals is that by 2030 all materials should be either recycled or sourced in a more sustainable way. Projects like this align perfectly with our sustainability targets and represent an important step in bringing us closer to achieving those goals,” a spokesperson for the Group said.   Unperturbed by the idea of teaming up with a competitor, the retailer said it believes in the power of partnerships with like-minded organisations. “We see collaboration as a vital tool in tackling issues that impact us all. It is only by working together that we can enact real long-lasting change both for our industry and far beyond.”A design and product development team in H&M will create the garments using the fibres produced and will collaborate with other consortium partners, such as the textile suppliers, to “co-create the vision” for the products.While unable to share details on the type of product lines or how many, H&M is confident that the fibres will produce the desired result. “We believe that the fibre produced will have similar qualities to both cotton and viscose and therefore will not change the look and feel of the clothing.” Both brands will develop textile take-back programmes to ensure the clothing stays within the system. While the project is based in Europe, the retailers have not yet confirmed the regions in which they will introduce the circular clothing lines.Global solutionThe European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme is supporting the project through over €6.7 million in grant funding, Circularity in the textile industry and the development of technologies to produce sustainable materials are key areas of focus for the European Union and are among the sustainability initiatives outlined in the European Commission’s EU Circular Economy Action Plan.Alava is hopeful, though, that the project can have an impact beyond Europe. “We are looking at industrial partners to start building up commercial scale. We are looking very closely at Asian markets, we have a couple of projects ongoing in Asia, to really work closely with the industrial scale manufacturer,” he told Inside Retail. “We foresee that this can be a global solution for the textile industry.”