There is a ranking, today among the most virtuous and important, in which Italy stands out: in the recycling of waste, it has the highest percentage of the total, 79.4%, more than double the European average which stops to 49%. A quota that allows us to save 23 tons of oil and 63 tons of CO2 every year. Behind these numbers there are stories of circular entrepreneurship collected by the report “100 Italian Circular Economy Stories”, just published by the Symbola Foundation together with Enel and now in its second edition.
In the volume, and in the map that can be consulted here, 100 cases of circular economy are collected, considered particularly significant for the solidity of the solutions adopted and for their originality. And among the many categories, from agri-food to utilities, from automation to construction, the textile-fashion industry is the most present, with 13 stories, confirming the deep commitment of this segment of Made in Italy to sustainability.
The primacy of shoes and recycled fabrics
Among the 12 cases there are those of historical textile industries, global brands, innovative companies and start-ups such as the shoe factory Acbc (Anything Can Be Changed). The latter, based in Milan, was born in 2017 and was the first Italian footwear company certified by B-Corp: the shoes are all made of recycled materials such as polyester obtained from bottles or waste from the production of apples in Tyrol.
Italian textiles are confirmed as one of the most avant-garde sectors in terms of sustainability and circularity, as demonstrated by the cases of Aquafil , the company that patented Econyl, nylon made from recycled fishing nets and discarded upholstery, increasingly used also by the most important fashion brands, and Manteco, founded in 1941 in Prato and since then active in circularity, since it begins by recycling old garments and discarded military blankets: today it focuses on the new MWool recycled wool, available in over a thousand colors thanks to an innovative coloring process that is based on the combination of fibers in different shades, and Woolten, born from MWool and Tencel.
Not missing Radici Group, the Bergamo group that recently launched the first recycled tights, in collaboration with Oroblu, and the innovative sports socks in Renycle, a fabric created from the recycling of nylon 6 fibers.