Advancing recycling technologies for mixed post-consumer textiles waste from blended products in HORIZON-CL6-2026-01-CIRCBIO-02
14th November 2025 at 11:30 am
Europe’s textile industry is at a turning point. Blended fabrics such as polycotton, viscose-polyester and other mixed fibres dominate the market but remain extremely difficult to recycle. The Horizon Europe call topic HORIZON-CL6-2026-01-CIRCBIO-02 targets this challenge directly, funding industrial-scale innovations for fibre-to-fibre recycling of post-consumer blended textiles. With a deadline on 17 September 2026 and a budget of €11.00 million, this Innovation Action (IA) supports collaborative projects that integrate technological, environmental and social innovation to make textiles truly circular. The topic contributes to the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, the EU Circular Economy Act, and the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, among others. It also contributes to the Start-ups and Scale-ups strategy.
1. Breaking down complexity: the challenge of blended textiles
Blended fabrics combine the best performance features of different fibres but pose a major barrier to recycling. Their varied chemical compositions, coatings and additives make disassembly and separation technically challenging and costly. Horizon Europe calls for solutions that effectively collect, sort and recycle these products at their end-of-life while producing high-quality, non-toxic secondary materials suitable for reuse.
• Demonstrate how your solution improves end-of-life sorting and fibre-to-fibre recycling efficiency.
• Include biotechnological or mechanical innovations that enhance material separation and decontamination.
• Show how your process increases material quality, non-toxicity and durability of secondary fibres.
• Build industrial symbiosis models linking collection, sorting and recycling systems across value chains.
2. From waste to value: improving material quality and safety
Textile recycling must produce secondary fibres that are durable, safe and market-ready. The European Commission (EC) expects projects to demonstrate recycling and purification processes that eliminate contaminants such as PFAS and reduce the release of microplastics throughout the lifecycle. The focus is on Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) approaches that maintain fibre integrity and quality across multiple recycling loops.
• Include decontamination and purification steps to remove persistent chemicals.
• Quantify improvements in mechanical strength, colour fastness and fibre purity.
• Apply SSbD principles to ensure materials remain non-toxic throughout processing.
• Use LCA and PEF methods to demonstrate environmental benefits and resource efficiency.
3. Designing for recyclability and disassembly
Circularity starts with design. Future textile products must be engineered for disassembly, using materials and production processes that allow easy separation of fibre blends and non-textile components. Horizon Europe encourages testing of innovative dismantling and sorting technologies that reduce waste and extend material value.
• Demonstrate mechanical, chemical or enzymatic disassembly techniques.
• Include processes for separating layers, coatings and trims efficiently.
• Collaborate with designers and manufacturers to integrate recyclability from the outset.
• Explore digital product passports or similar tools to track material composition and recycling readiness.
4. Collaboration across the textile value chain
This call strongly emphasises cross-sector collaboration. Proposals must engage the entire textile value chain, from fibre producers and brands to waste managers and recyclers. Successful projects will show coordinated actions that make circular systems technically feasible and economically viable.
• Include manufacturers, recyclers, local authorities and consumer organisations in your consortium.
• Build partnerships that ensure industrial-scale demonstration and long-term market uptake.
• Collaborate with the Textiles of the Future Partnership and existing Horizon Europe projects for alignment and synergies.
• Plan training, dissemination and stakeholder workshops to support transition readiness.
5. Integrating lifecycle thinking and validation
To ensure sustainability and economic feasibility, projects must validate their processes through lifecycle assessments (LCA) and lifecycle costing (LCC). These assessments should use well-established methods based on the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) for comparability across the sector.
• Include full LCA and LCC analyses to prove environmental and cost benefits.
• Quantify recycling yield, resource savings and emissions reduction.
• Show how your results support the EU’s circular product metrics and industry standards.
• Demonstrate how the methodology enables scalability and replicability in other material streams.
6. Towards a circular textile ecosystem
The EC envisions a circular textile ecosystem where waste is transformed into valuable resources, production is non-toxic, and recycling is economically viable. By combining innovative recycling technologies with cross-sector collaboration and lifecycle validation, this call will accelerate Europe’s shift toward sustainable textiles and reduced dependency on virgin materials.
• Highlight how your project contributes to the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles.
• Include measurable indicators for waste reduction, circularity rate and durability.
• Demonstrate how your results benefit local authorities, consumers and European recyclers.
• Clearly describe the pathway from innovation to market deployment.
Do you need support with writing your proposal for circular textiles innovation?
At accelopment, we have a proven track record in supporting Horizon Europe projects that bridge materials science, sustainability and cross-sector innovation. Our experience includes Mat4Rail, REFINE, ViroiDoc and XoSoft, projects that demonstrate our expertise in advanced materials, sustainable design and industrial collaboration. Together, these initiatives reflect our commitment to helping consortia develop safe, circular and market-ready innovations. With our experience in proposal writing, consortium coordination and impact communication, we help research teams design competitive and policy-relevant projects under Horizon Europe’s Cluster 6 and beyond.
Dr. Johannes Ripperger
Research & Innovation Manager
Andreia Cruz
Research & Innovation Project Manager