Living Lab Circular Textiles

Maximum closure of the textile loop

Living Lab Circular Textiles aims to close the textile loop to the maximum extent possible. Keeping textiles in circulation for as long as possible breaks the prevailing take-make-waste trend in the linear textile chain.

Textile production is still a burden on the environment: raw materials require thousands of litres of water, dyeing is done with unhealthy chemicals and fabrics disappear into landfills at the end of their useful life. Moreover, fast-fashion is very popular, further shortening the life cycle of textiles. The different stages that textiles go through are sometimes scattered around the world.

Although the textile value chain is often no longer located in Europe, textile processing does tie in with the activities of local tailoring companies in the Hasselt region. This living lab brings the value chain back to the local level whenever possible. The project wants to create awareness among citizens to use textiles as long and high quality as possible, and wants to bring mainstream fashion companies into this story. A learning network will also be set up to share good practices with other cities, municipalities and provinces.