Knitcycle: Making Knitwear Ready for the Circular Economy
October 1, 2026
The Knitcycle research project at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, in collaboration with knitting specialist Bache, has demonstrated that high-quality textile recycling in the knitting sector is already possible today. As part of the project, yarns were developed that consist of up to 100 percent recycled material and are still suitable for the production of high-quality textiles.
The need is great, as recycled fibers are often used only for products with lower quality standards. Knitcycle therefore takes a different approach: “Design for Recycling.” Even during the development of new knitwear products, care is taken to ensure that they can be recycled as easily as possible later on.
The project focused on selecting suitable materials, designing the products, and developing knit structures suitable for recycling. In addition, key steps in the mechanical recycling process were examined and optimized. A modern shredder, purchased with support from the German Federal Environmental Foundation, also played an important role in this process.
The project was supported by additional partners from industry and research, who contributed their expertise in analyzing fiber qualities and in high-quality recycling processes. The investigations confirmed that the course for later recycling is set as early as the product development stage. Material selection and design are decisive factors in determining how well a product can be recycled at the end of its life cycle.
A particular success of the project is the development of knitting yarns made entirely from recycled fibers that still meet quality and processing requirements. This demonstrated that the material cycle for knitted products can be largely closed.
This opens up new possibilities for the textile industry. Regional manufacturers, in particular, will be better able to return production scraps and used textiles to the cycle and use them as raw materials. At the same time, the challenge remains to make recycling processes more economically viable and to implement them on a larger scale.
The insights gained from the project will now be explored in greater depth in further research projects. In light of scarce resources and increasing sustainability requirements, the reuse of materials will play an increasingly important role for the textile industry in the future.