PESCO-UP: Turning Mixed Textile Waste into High-Quality Recycled Materials

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, one of Europe’s leading research and technology organisations, coordinates PESCO-UP – Textile fibre recycling from mixed streams of PESCO textiles. The project brings together a 19-partner European consortium covering the full textile recycling lifecycle, including research organisations, technology developers, textile companies, digital solution providers and industry organisations.

Civitta is responsible for key activities related to technology transfer, exploitation and market uptake.

PESCO-UP addresses one of Europe’s most persistent circular-economy challenges: the recycling of mixed cotton/polyester textile waste. Although millions of tonnes of textile waste are generated in Europe every year, only around 30–35% is collected separately and less than 1% is recycled into new clothing. Mixed cotton/polyester textiles are particularly difficult to recycle because their separation and purification require technically complex and economically viable processes.

Funded under Horizon Europe with an EU contribution of €10.78 million, PESCO-UP started in January 2024 and runs until December 2027. Its ambition is to establish sustainable and economically viable processes for converting mixed cotton/polyester textile waste into high-quality secondary cotton and polyester materials, reducing dependence on virgin resources while creating new European business opportunities. 

The project needed to bridge a significant gap between promising textile-recycling technologies and their eventual industrial and commercial uptake:

• Making mixed textile recycling economically viable by overcoming the technical and cost barriers associated with separating, purifying and processing cotton/polyester blends that are currently difficult to recycle.
• Connecting technologies across the recycling value chain by linking automated identification and sorting, purification, fibre separation, recycling and the development of valuable end products into viable end-to-end pathways.
• Creating markets for recycled materials by understanding market conditions, competition, customer needs and value-chain structures to determine where the emerging recycling routes could create commercially attractive opportunities.
• Preparing technologies for market uptake by addressing regulatory, skills, exploitation and technology-transfer barriers so that successful technologies can progress beyond project demonstrations towards industrial deployment.

Civitta took a market-oriented approach to ensure that the technologies developed within PESCO-UP could progress from technical innovation towards economically viable solutions and real-world market uptake.

• Led the initial technology transfer and exploitation planning, establishing a structured pathway for moving PESCO-UP innovations towards commercial application and long-term use.
• Assessed the economic feasibility and business potential of the preferred textile-recycling routes, helping identify the technological pathways with the strongest potential for market deployment. 
• Conducted market research and value-chain analysis to understand market opportunities, competitive conditions, potential customers, risks and barriers affecting the uptake of recycled cotton and polyester solutions.
• Analysed policy, regulatory and standardisation conditions affecting the transition towards circular textile value chains and the deployment of novel recycling technologies.
• Identifies skills gaps and workforce requirements associated with emerging recycling technologies and developed the basis for upskilling and reskilling activities supporting their adoption. 
• Develops exploitation and market-uptake strategies for the selected technologies, connecting technical project results with longer-term technology transfer, commercialisation and circular-economy opportunities. 

PESCO-UP was successfully funded under Horizon Europe and launched in January 2024, with an EU contribution of €10.78 million. The project is developing and testing technologies covering the complete recycling pathway for mixed cotton/polyester textiles from digitalised identification and automated sorting through purification and separation to the production of new materials and products. 

The project has already progressed beyond the conceptual stage: digitalised sorting and hyperspectral imaging approaches are being developed, pilot-scale purification and separation trials have been conducted, and regenerated fibres and films have been produced from recovered cotton.

For polyester, thermomechanical and chemical recycling protocols have been established and application development has started. In parallel, PESCO-UP is developing a Digital Material Passport and data-sharing marketplace to match textile feedstock supply with recycling demand. 

The project’s wider ambition is to demonstrate that difficult-to-recycle mixed textiles can become valuable secondary raw materials rather than waste. By combining technical innovation with market analysis, digitalisation, skills development and exploitation planning, PESCO-UP is creating the conditions for a more competitive European textile recycling industry and reducing dependence on virgin cotton and fossil-based materials. 

PESCO-UP demonstrates that technological breakthroughs alone do not guarantee market uptake. Particularly in circular-economy sectors, the viability of an innovation depends on the interaction between technology, feedstock availability, processing economics, market demand, regulation, skills and the wider value chain.

Addressing these dimensions in parallel allows the most promising technological routes to be identified and prepared for real-world deployment.

The project also illustrates our role in bridging research and implementation. By combining market intelligence, economic feasibility assessment, value-chain analysis, exploitation planning and workforce development, our team help transform complex R&I results into commercially relevant opportunities and supports the transition from laboratory innovation to scalable circular business models.