Novetex Textiles Limited opens the next chapter in its illustrious history with the launch of a new textile mill in Tai Po, Hong Kong’s manufacturing hub, says a recent press release.
We featured this story last year in conjunction with HKRITA's launch of their G2G system during the Hong Kong Fashion Summit. At the same time Novetex had a soft launch of their Tai Po facility with top government officials visiting and eager members of the fashion and textile industry getting their first glimpses of what had been built. Just under a year on, most international brands who source out of HK have had a chance to visit the site and are able to now start working with Novetex within this facility.
Home to its latest project, the first textile mill to open in Hong Kong in almost half a century aims to provide an innovative solution to tackle one of the biggest problems of the industry: textile waste. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, ‘every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled.’
Figure: The Billie System consumes no water and produces no chemical waste in its upcycling process.
With an initial investment of HK$15 million and following two years of development, The Billie System is a game-changer for brands and companies looking to revive excess inventory, unused raw materials, or textile waste.
While most recycling processes require high volumes of water and chemicals, The Billie System does not consume water, emit wastewater, or produce chemical waste.
The system combines new and existing technologies to create an efficient solution for recycling textile waste while reducing adverse impacts on the environment. it is almost entirely automated, and able to process up to 3 tonnes of recycled fibre per day, according to Novetex can be further blended with virgin material to produce new yarns for various products & garments.
The facility is able to shred fibres and respin those into new fibres based on colour, as well as offering a second option that uses chemical separation methods to separate cellulose & man-made synthetics.
Post-consumer and/or post-industrial textile waste will be sourced from retail partners or NGO's, with three production lines at the facility sanitising, sorting and processing discarded textiles into slivers, before being spun into yarn as art of a highly automated production process.
“The launch of The Billie System is just the next step in a series of innovations that have come before,” says Ronna Chao, Chairman of Novetex Textiles Limited.
“Sustainability is not a trend but a necessity, and by providing an efficient practice for companies and brands, we are tackling not just a local problem but a global one,” Ronna Chao added.
INFORMATION SOURCES:
Novetex Press Release
Textile today
Kohan Textile journal
