More than 100 billion garments are produced each year, most of which end up in incinerators or landfills. In Europe, fabrics and textiles rank fourth in terms of impact on the environment and climate change (after food, construction, mobility). They are, in addition, ranked third in water and soil consumption and fifth in raw material use. About 5.8 million tons of textiles are thrown away each year, or about 11 kilograms per person, while worldwide every second the equivalent of a truckload of these materials is sent to landfills and incinerated. The reality is that the majority of clothing — by product category, quality, price or consumer demand — does not fit into reuse/repair/resale channels. Recycling is realistically the best solution for most of the industry’s assortment.

The transition then leads to circular textiles, that is, a more modern system that is able to derive yarn from end-of-life garments through a mechanical process. Textiles become circular and feed on its own waste to regenerate itself. Again, Pontetorto is at the forefront of being a key player in this momentous revolution with first-rate international collaborations.

Because the history of Pontetorto is also a circular history, adopted since 1952 in the Prato district. Today everything has changed so that nothing would change. The vision is the same but the technology supporting the Textile to Textile (T2T) process changes. And in particular it is an inner-circularity, that is, an entirely in-house process.  “Our company,” explains Marco Toccafondi, general manager of Pontetorto, ”during the textile finishing process, produces textile waste of polyester and other fibers. This material, hitherto destined for disposal, is instead recovered, separated by color and cleaned of impurities and converted back into new recycled fiber to be woven. All processing steps are sustainable and result in a fully recycled product. This idea, which partly reproduces the attitude of the companies in our area sixty or seventy years ago but with the most modern technologies, stems from the need to recover all textile waste not only from our company but also from the garment makers who in this case can avoid disposal expenses by allocating to us the waste that will generate new 100% recycled fabrics.”