Purfi

Fibre rejuvenation in textile recycling

Waregem-based Purfi Manufacturing Belgium is doing pioneering work in the world of textile recycling. It recently received the Trends Impact Award for circular economy for this. Thanks to their advanced processes, they can reduce old textile material to high-quality fibres that can then be reused in the textile industry.

West Flanders-based family company Concordia Textiles partnered with US-based Purfi Global. Together, under the name Purfi Manufacturing Belgium, they then set up a pilot line in Waregem where they can currently process and convert up to 10 tonnes of textiles per day into renewed fibres.

Purfi developed several patented processes to achieve and optimise this conversion. In many used textile recycling techniques, the old textiles are ground, which has a negative impact on the length and strength of the recycled fibres. Purfi, with their specific sorting processes and their ‘reverse spinning’ technology, which literally translated means ‘reverse spinning’, is able to retain those important characteristics of the fibre. Because they say they are able to match the quality of a new fibre in this way, they also do not call the result ‘fibre recycling’, but rather ‘fibre rejuvenation’.

Purfi is also not only making an important contribution to circularity within the textile industry, they also want the processing within their company to be as sustainable as possible. For example, the factory in Waregem runs entirely on solar energy and requires almost no resources such as water or gas compared to the production of virgin, new, fibres.

Purfi is ready to expand the pilot line in Waregem to other countries worldwide, with a primary focus on textile-dense areas, including in the Far East.