9 GREEN DEAL CHANGES EUROPEAN CLOTHING INDUSTRY How do you know if the clothing you wear was truly produced sustainably? And where, for example, does the material come from? Much will change for the European clothing industry as part of the Green Deal. Starting in 2027, the European Union will require fashion companies to provide every new garment with a so-called Digital Product Passport (DPP). This DPP shows the entire supply chain, from raw materials and production to CO2 emissions, water consumption, and recycling options. This is an important step towards a more transparent, fair, and sustainable textile industry. Together with the Fashion Research & Technology research group at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Biobased Innovations research group of HAN, connected to HAN BioCentre will work on the M-DPP (Mole- cular Digital Product Passport) project, starting in 2026. A working prototype of the passport will be developed within this project. HAN will be involved in setting up the data structure and molecular analyses. ‘FROM COTTON TO COLOR’ TRANSFORMS COTTON TO MOLECULES The textile industry is currently facing a significant environmental challenge generating 45 million tons of waste cotton textiles. In the SIA KIEM GoChem project ‘From cotton to color’ the research group Biobased Innovations together with partner BioFashionTech is developing an enzymatic process for transforming natural cotton fibers into biobased molecules. These molecules are thereafter used as secondary raw material to produce biobased pigments for textiles. BML (Biology and Medical Laboratory research) students were able to optimize the process parameters for the first enzymatic step and the fermentation process parameters for the second pigment production step. In a final experiment old cotton lab coats were successfully used in a proof of concept study at 60-liter scale from which a first batch of red pigment was produced. To become commercially attractive further process optimization is needed. This initiative aligns with Dutch government and EU regulations mandating textile recycling by 2050. biofashiontech.com SUSTAINABLE TEXTILES AS SOLUTION FOR THREADS OF TOMORROW
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