NAZENA
TURNING TEXTILE WASTE
INTO CIRCULAR PRODUCTS
Nazena, the Italian start-up that turns the textile industry into a circular economy: from industrial waste and worn-out clothes to eco-friendly products and durable packaging.
Transforming the world of fashion and packaging by making them sustainable. This is the vision of Nazena, the Vicenza-based start-up that recovers textile waste from industries and consumers to turn it into new products.
In recent years, the world of fast fashion has led to a market based on the production of increasingly large quantities of low-quality garments. As a result, fashion has become one of the most polluting industries in the world, accounting for 10% of global CO2 emissions.
Why? What happens to production waste? And what about the old clothes we discard?
Every year, 85% of industrial textile waste goes to landfills or incinerators. That’s 78 million tonnes. And each person throws away, on average, 34kg of clothes.
Recycling solutions implemented by fashion companies are still too scarce, but the number of brands trying to integrate sustainable practices into their business models is growing.
This is also because, in response to the serious global emergency, institutions are requiring manufacturing companies to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 (see the EU Green Deal).
The new EU action plan COM(2020) 98 final on the circular economy also aims to make all packaging reusable or recyclable by 2030. They’re in fact considered the main contributor to the pollution caused by plastic waste.
It is on the basis of these premises that in 2019 Giulia De Rossi decided to found Nazena, which aims to disrupt the fashion and packaging industries by establishing a circular economy model.
For Nazena, this is already a reality: post-industrial and post-consumer waste is recovered and transformed into new products, avoiding waste of resources and in a logic of upcycling. This means that products can be reintroduced over and over again into the production cycle, and each time they will generate added value to the previous one.
Thanks to a patented process, indeed, Nazena is able to obtain material, also patented, that is resistant and can assume different shapes according to the customer’s preferences.
The recovered waste can be both natural fibers (such as cotton, wool, viscose, and silk) and synthetic fibers (such as polyester, nylon, and elastomer). They are used to make mainly packaging, retail fittings, design items, and acoustic panels.
Some products, for example, are designed with a second function. This is the case for many packaging items such as wine boxes which, once their first function is completed, can be easily assembled by the consumer to become a serving tray or a finely designed lamp.
For other products finding a second function is more difficult. In these cases, Nazena provides a take-back program: at the end of their life, they are taken back and re-processed into new products.
By doing so, the start-up is able to extend the life of goods that are usually intended for a very short cycle of use, such as packaging.
By doing so, the start-up is able to extend the life of goods that are usually intended for a very short cycle of use, such as packaging.
Nazena’s concrete goal is to collect 250 tonnes of textile waste by 2025. Considering that every kg of recycled fabric saves (i.e. doesn’t emit) 4 kg of CO2, equivalent to 4 hot showers, you can imagine how much breathing space this would give to the planet. To get a better idea: the equivalent of the energy consumed by an average house for 74 years.
The problem is global and across the board, which is why Nazena is targeting the textile and clothing industries as well as retailers and consumers. In order for change to affect the entire supply chain.
It offers companies the opportunity to save on waste disposal and supply of resource costs. Their own waste material becomes a productive resource, avoiding landfills while it is still us-able and allowing the company to reduce its investment in new raw materials. It will also im-prove their LCA score (Life Cycle Assessment, the analysis that measures the environmental footprint of a product or service over its entire life cycle), which is essential to comply with European directives and to effectively reduce their environmental impact. This will also bring consequent image benefits, based on tangible and honest green practices.
The company’s waste and recovered clothing are also used by Nazena to create customized furniture and packaging solutions for retail shops. The start-up is also involved in the creation of a consumer community, whereby people can hand in their used clothes and get them back in a new form and function.
Through feasibility studies and product development, Nazena provides for the entire life cycle of the outputs it produces, from the recovery of waste to its distribution, recycling, and disposal. All of this is done 100% internally, without outsourcing any activity and working side by side with the companies that choose to join the mission.
Because alone you cannot go far, but together we can really make the world better.
Where can you find Nazena?
Nazena found its natural location at the Elevator Innovation Hub, an incubator for start-ups and the first technology hub in Vicenza, where it established its headquarters:
Elevator Hub
Strada Casale 175
36100 Vicenza (VI)
Contatti
Nazena Srl
info@nazena.com
+3904441792229
Michela Fontana – Ufficio Stampa
michela.fontana@nazena.com
+39 340 09 00 296
Giulia De Rossi – CEO e Fondatrice
giulia.derossi@nazena.com
+39 347 92 77 659