Agatex Feinchemie GmbH has been cooperating with Recycling Atelier Augsburg since June 2024. The manufacturer’s specialty fabrics support various steps in textile recycling and make it more efficient, higher quality and more sustainable.
Agatex Feinchemie GmbH, a company that manufactures and sells fine and specialty chemicals, is the latest member of the Recycling Atelier partner network at Augsburg University of Applied Sciences and the Institute of Textile Technology. The partners are working together on the use of special materials to improve the recycling of textiles in various processing stages. The aim is to make mechanical recycling, the most ecological way of recycling textiles, more efficient and at the same time produce high-quality recycled textiles.
The Recycling Atelier partner network consists of eleven industrial companies that together cover the entire process chain of mechanical textile recycling. The addition of Agatex Feinchemie GmbH represents an important building block for the high-quality recycling of textiles, as the right lubricant can make the difference between the decisive millimetres of fiber length in recycling.
The manufacturer’s special additives can be used for a wide range of applications, as Georg Stegschuster, Head of the Augsburg Recycling Atelier, explains: “The special materials provide support throughout the entire recycling process. Even during the processing and defibration of discarded textiles, the addition of the right auxiliary material can preserve valuable fiber length. This is a key criterion for high-quality recycling. And they simplify the processing of the fibers in the spinning mill or into nonwovens, for example. The cooperation with Agatex Feinchemie GmbH is therefore an important step in the production of high-quality textile products with a high recycled content.”
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Nikolaus Bauer-Harnoncourt, member of the Management Board of Agatex Feinchemie GmbH, is delighted with the new partnership: “The cooperation with Recycling Atelier Augsburg not only makes the recycling process more efficient and the resulting textiles of higher quality. It also promotes sustainable practices in the textile industry. Together with the Recycling Atelier, the THA and the ITA Augsburg and its partners from the industry, we want to set an example for more sustainability. Against fast fashion and for companies to take more responsibility for their products.”
Prof. Mesut Cetin, Institute director of ITA Augsburg and professor at the Faculty of Mechanical and Process Engineering at Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, explains the impact and work of the Recycling Atelier: “The Recycling Atelier, ITA Augsburg and the THA see themselves as a catalyst for industry towards sustainability. We welcome innovation and progress in every form. Whether application-oriented content or basic research, whether publicly funded projects or direct contract research – we are open to any exchange between industry and research.”
