On 19 and 20 November 2025, the SOLSTICE consortium met in Prato, Italy, not only for the 4th General Assembly of the project, but also for the first regional event.

From Demonstration to Scale: Regional Circular Textile Innovations in Prato

Organised by Textile ETP in collaboration with Next Technology Tecnotessile (NTT), the first regional event, titled “From Demonstration to Scale: Regional Circular Textile Innovations in Prato”, included the participation of the RegioGreenTex project.

The half-day event explored how regional textile ecosystems in Prato are advancing circular economy models, particularly focusing on the involvment of citizens via a dedicated app, and for the industry, on elastane chemical recycling. Through three thematic sessions and a guided industrial visit of Faliero Sarti, participants learned about innovative demonstrators, regional collaboration frameworks, and the crucial role of cross-project cooperation in scaling circular textile innovations.

The event attracted 82 participants, including industry representatives, SMEs, researchers, policymakers, and regional authorities from across Italy and Europe. It also featured the participation of representatives from the European Commission, who provided insights on the EU’s textile sustainability and innovation agenda.

Photos from the event are available here.

SOLSTICE General Assembly

In the General Assembly, partners shared progress on their work packages, discussed current challenges, and outlined the next steps, especially focusing on:

the upcoming prospective environmental impact assessment developed by Circle Economy, that will provide a first estimation of the prospective environmental impact reduction as a result of the SOLSTICE pilots
the latest developments of the 4 SOLSTICE pilots in the regions: Berlin's jeans repair bonus system, Prato's gamification app rewarding citizens of their sustainable actions, Grenoble's 4R sales and services Hub, and Catalunya's upcoming activities
Techtera's Valoramix tool to empower sorting and recycling professionals to better understand their material streams, from characterising feedstocks to visualising flows and uncovering the most promising recovery opportunities.

the industrial progress regarding spectroscopy for sorting textile waste, MIR-based detection study of black textiles, and chemical recycling.

As manager of SOLSTICE’s communications, dissemination and ECOSYSTEX-related activities, Textile ETP also highlighted the growth of the ECOSYSTEX community, presented the results of the SOLSTICE latest campaigns, and announced that the second SOLSTICE regional event will take place in Berlin in Spring 2026.

We thank NTT and the Municipality of Prato for organising the meeting and welcoming us in their city.

For more information and updates on the SOLSTICE project, please visit www.solstice-project.eu