Textile ETP at the Dornbirn Global Fibre Congress 2026

On 16-17 September 2026, our Secretary General Lutz Walter took part in the Dornbirn Global Fibre Congress in Austria, the annual gathering of fibre researchers and innovators from around the world. This year's programme featured more than 100 lectures across three parallel strands over two and a half days. Key themes were circularity, biobased materials, high-performance textiles for protection and defence, digitalisation, and cross-industry innovation between the fibre, pulp and paper sectors.

The circularity puzzle is still unsolved, with plenty of technology available but very little of it running at scale, and while the knowledge keeps building up, the conditions needed to put it to work are simply not there yet. Weak markets and a constant push to cut costs leave little room for new solutions, which raises a fair question for Europe: how much industry will still be here by the time collection, sorting and recycling infrastructure is finally in place? On top of that comes the familiar dilemma in which everyone agrees a strong European supply chain is a good idea, yet nobody wants to be the first to give up their low-cost Asian supplier.

Another pattern discussed in Dornbirn was what could be called a donut strategy, where companies hold on to their core business and keep a few ambitious tech bets alive, while cutting almost everything in between, from small struggling business units to new technologies that do not pay off quickly and sustainability teams without an immediate impact on the bottom line. Regulation, meanwhile, is still waiting in the wings, and when it does arrive, it will catch everyone by surprise, as always.

The next edition takes place on 14-16 September 2027 in Dornbirn,closing as ITMA opens in Hannover on 16 September.