Decoupling of resource consumption and growth in the textile industry

The DECOUPLE project has a vision of decoupling resource consumption and economic growth in the
textile industry and thereby paving the way for transitioning the textile industry into a circular
economy.
The barriers preventing such a transition are i) lack of data for deciding how used textile products
should be given a new textile life through reuse, remanufacturing, or recycling ii) systemic solutions
to technical, design and behavioral challenges that enable product lifetime extension, and iii)
documentation of the environmental sustainability and economic impact.
DECOUPLE will solve these barriers through close collaboration in a strong consortium consisting of
Elis, ID Identity (ID), Danish Technological Institute (DTI), Design School Kolding (DSKD) and
University of Southern Denmark (SDU). The goal is to maximize the value creation from textile
products throughout their lifetime by reuse, remanufacturing and recycling initiatives guided by a
data-driven decision support system (DSS) based on 6.4 million tagged products at Elis.
Successful completion of DECOUPLE will unlock an annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of
15.000 tons CO2e and an annual increase in revenue of 200 million DKK split between the project
partners. DECOUPLE will thus serve as a prime example for decoupling economic growth and
resource consumption in the textile industry.
With Elis as one of the World leaders within textile product-service systems, DECOUPLE presents a
strategic opportunity for DK to become a key player in the transition towards a circular textile
economy. With national textile competences and expertise declining the past four decades, a joined
force of universities, global textile actors and knowledge partners, offered by DECOUPLE, is
necessary for regaining the once renowned Danish stronghold position within textile.