Novel textile materials and their current as well as future regulatory landscapes discussed in ExpandFibre Ecosystem webinar
Event NewsIn 2023 the ExpandFibre team hosted three different thematic webinars for the ExpandFibre Ecosystem. On December 14th, 2023, the third and last thematic webinar titled “Circular Textiles in Focus: Decoding the Regulatory Puzzle for Novel Textile Materials” took place with approx. 50 people in attendance to follow excellent presentations from invited expert speakers and interesting insights from Ecosystem members. At the end of the article, you can revisit the other two thematic ExpandFibre webinars of 2023.
The ExpandFibre Programme Managers Katariina Kemppainen (SVP, Group R&D at Metsä Spring) and Gerardo Gómez Millán (Technology Expert at Fortum Bio2X) opened the event by presenting short overviews on the textile focused activities of Metsä Group and Fortum Bio2X, respectively.
The first session of the webinar focused on bringing valuable insights into the complex theme of textile regulation with invited expert speakers from The European Commission and the Finnish Textile and Fashion association.
Paola Migliorini (Deputy Head of Unit, European Commission, DG Environment, Circular Economy, Sustainable Production and Consumption) gave the first presentation of the webinar titled “Sustainable and Circular Textiles”, in which she presented textiles related highlights from the European Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan II. She also presented the concept of “Ecodesign for textiles products”, and discussed how the Commission is tackling greenwashing and empowering consumers in the green transition.
Katri Pylkkänen (Products, Materials and Sustainability at Finnish Textile and Fashion) provided a brief overview on the main focus areas of the Finnish Textile and Fashion association. She also gave an interesting look at the Finnish textile value chain explaining how different companies are contributing to it. Katri concluded her presentation by providing insights into the views of the Finnish industry on EU textiles strategy.
The second session of the webinar was shared between three expert speakers from the ExpandFibre Ecosystem – one representing an on-going Ecosystem project and the two others representing Ecosystem member organizations. Virpi Rämö (Customer Relationship Manager & Senior Lecturer at Tampere University of Applied Sciences) presented the highlights and future outlook of the ongoing ExpandFibre Ecosystem project SUSTAFIT (Sustainable fit-for-purpose nonwovens) running until September 2024. Petra Härmälä (R&D Manager at Mirka) provided a detailed look at Mirka as a company and how they are developing technical textile materials for industrial applications. Petra also offered insights how Mirka as a company is navigating the complexities of EU regulation for industrial textile materials. SK Raja (Director, Material Transition, Innovation & Product Development at Coats) gave the final presentation of the webinar event, in which he expertly detailed how Coats, as one of the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturers, is working on sustainability issues as well as navigating the regulatory landscape.
ExpandFibre Ecosystem events will continue in 2024 with even more thematic webinars focusing on various exciting biomaterial topics from the ExpandFibre R&D&I roadmap.
Read more about the work that Metsä Group and Fortum are doing in the field of textiles:
Metsä Group – The Kuura® textile fibre
Fortum – Bio2X: high-value products from biomass
Revisit the first two thematic ExpandFibre Ecosystem webinars of 2023 by clicking the links below: