About 4 billion jeans are reduced to waste every year. A huge waste stream that Marc Meijers of DenimX from Maastricht (NL) wants to transform into composite materials for high-quality products such as furniture, lighting and acoustic panels.
Marc Meijers also develops applications for polyester fibres and felt from textile waste streams. DenimX, for example, tries to valorize the huge waste mountain that the fast fashion industry generates in a sustainable way.
“Sustainable products with re-used content can only compete with virgin type products if they offer unique high-level aesthetics”
Marc Meijers – founder & owner denimx
First, the residual stream of textile must be completely dissected into the base fibres. For jeans, these are cotton fibres. These fibres must then be fully rebuilt into a composite material depending on the application. After all, a chair imposes different functional and structural requirements on the material than, for example, a placemat.
“There are many more technical challenges for using residual flows than using virgin materials for new products,” says Marc Meijers. “Both the production method and the material recipe is adapted to the application.”
With a background in product design, Marc combines both an engineers and design perspective. The development of the material thus runs parallel to the design of the application. By applying this reengineering strategy, DenimX developed a comprehensive portfolio of products for the interior and lifestyle market.
