Neumühle presents circular t-shirt including recycling system

Neumühle Switzerland AG has designed a t-shirt fit for the circular economy. Known as the Mono Shirt, the garment consists of only one family of materials. According to a press release, the organic cotton features zero elastane or polyester yarns owing to a “sophisticated cutting technique”. This enables high-quality recycling, since the collars and the Cradle to Cradle Certified sewing thread used in the shirt can also be recycled, the press release explains.

The lifecycle of the garment is closed in that the worn Mono Shirt is returned to Neumühle, with the shirts then collected and sent to the Turkish production site of the company’s Swiss recycling partner Säntis Textiles, which is based in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden. Here, a mechanical recycling process is used to create fresh yarn out of the worn Mono Shirts, with customers offered a discount of 20 percent on their next purchase for returning the shirt.

“There are many hurdles when it comes to recycling clothes”, comments Annabelle Hutter, the 27-year-old Managing Director of Säntis Textiles and winner of several sustainability awards. “Aside from mixed fibers and the legislative frameworks, most of the time the recyclability of garments is just not factored in to the design process”, she adds.

These issues are solved by the “unique machine” invented by her father, which can completely recycle old clothes and other textiles such as hotel towels into new fibers, as Hutter explains in an interview. Säntis Textiles then sells on the yarns recovered in this manner to global textile brands such as Patagonia, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. ce/mm