Ecollant x Ambition Day: Feedback on the Path to Industrialization!

Ecollant at Les Premières Ambition Day

Yesterday, we were alongside Éléonore BLONDEAU for Ambition Day, an event organized by Les Premières Auvergne Rhône-Alpes, dedicated to emerging industrial entrepreneurs. From the idea to the prototype, through the challenges of industrialization, we shared our feedback alongside other committed female entrepreneurs.

Industrialization: a marathon, not a sprint

💡 Building an industrial project is a marathon, not a sprint. For us, every step—from idea to industrialization, including prototyping, funding, and process development—has been an exciting challenge, approached with rigor, perseverance, and a strong support network.

🚀 Highlights of the day:

🔹 A focus on the challenges of industrial development: from R&D to market launch.

🔹 A roundtable “feedback session” where we shared our victories and difficulties with other entrepreneurs also facing industrialization challenges 😉 Virginie SEURAT | Héléna JEROME | Fanny Deléage

🔹 Concrete and supportive exchanges to better understand the industrial and circular ecosystem.

Industrialization is a challenge, but it’s not done alone!

Thank you for the organization and to the participants—great encounters with Isabelle HARTER, Philippe MAUREL & @Magali FERRERA for this enriching day. For us, these moments of exchange are essential for overcoming obstacles, identifying the right resources, and moving forward more confidently toward responsible and innovative production.

➡️ Are you an expert in scale-up and industrialization? Let’s talk!

Did you know we collaborate with ALPES TLC? ♻️

A long-standing collaboration with ALPES TLC

This week, we had the pleasure of reconnecting with the teams from ALPES TLC, especially with Gauthier MESTRALLET, and SYNERGIES TLC, a long-standing partner in our Ecollant project with whom we have been collaborating for several years to develop a collection and sorting process around a polyamide stream.

This annual visit marks our commitment to continue working closely with key players in the textile end-of-life chain. At Ecollant, we know that the success of our project relies on the strength of our partnerships, which have now lasted for several years, based on shared values for managing end-of-life textiles towards specialized recycling streams.

What this partnership enables

Thanks to partners like ALPES TLC, we can:
✔️ Access significant volumes of end-of-life textiles containing polyamide, essential for the industrialization of our recycling process.
✔️ Share valuable feedback and data to better understand the operational challenges of collection and sorting.
✔️ Build sustainable solutions together for the recovery of complex textiles, particularly polyamide-based mixed fibers.

A big thank you to the teams for their commitment to developing new recycling streams and for taking the time to host us on-site. It’s always a pleasure to meet and exchange with the faces shaping the early stages of the recycling lifecycle. Special thanks to Olivia PERRIER for managing the project from the start!

What’s next?

With such dedicated partners, we are more motivated than ever to continue our mission and go further: collect more to recycle even more complex end-of-life textiles through the industrial deployment of our processes. It is through these steps that we will advance the sector and reduce its environmental impact.

2025: Transition to the Lab to Reach a New Technological Milestone 🧪

2025: focusing on lab scale-up

At Ecollant, the transition to the new year doesn’t mean slowing down. On the contrary: we are already hard at work in our laboratories, structuring the next stages of our development.

Consolidating the process for industrialization

Our priority? To consolidate our process in the lab to prepare for scale-up. This work is a crucial phase: it’s about increasing the scale of our process while maintaining optimal efficiency in processing complex textiles. This step brings us closer to our first production and testing tool dedicated to recycling polyamide-based textile waste.

With such a strategic goal, our entire team—including our scientific board—is fully committed. We are orchestrating a collective effort between internal expertise, state-of-the-art material resources, and technical know-how to progress quickly and rigorously toward a solid industrial model.

🛠️ Building the future with method and ambition

The project, much like a rocket in construction, rests on three pillars:

📈 Scaling up: Optimizing and preparing the process for large-scale implementation.

🔧 High-performance equipment: Integrating the necessary tools to ensure industrial efficiency.

🧑‍🔬 Expert collaboration: Synergy among all mobilized actors to accelerate our progress.

With this clear and structured plan, we are charting our course toward circular, professional, and impactful textile recycling. This scale-up phase is crucial to ensure that each step is validated, robust, and ready to face the industrial challenges of tomorrow.

A big thank you to our network of partners and supporters who make this project possible.

ECOLLANT x AMBITION DAY – From Idea to Prototype!

A day to go from idea to prototype

With the help of Éléonore BLONDEAU, an expert in industrial startups and circular economy, L’INCUBATEUR LES PREMIERES AUVERGNE RHONE ALPES has put together a special day just for you, to:

  • Discover the key stages in the development of an industrial project
  • Understand the terminology and explore the dedicated ecosystem
  • Meet potential future partners to launch your R&D and create your first prototype

👀 Spoiler: We’ll be hosting a roundtable where you’ll hear from ambitious women sharing their experiences on the challenges of developing an industrial project! 👋 Alexandra de la Fontaine, Héléna JEROME, Fanny Deléage, Charlotte Darmet, and Virginie SEURAT.

📅 Tuesday, February 4th from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM
📍 Campus du Numérique, Charbonnières-les-Bains

An event for women project leaders

🚀 So, project leaders, entrepreneurs, and mixed teams: this event is for YOU!

Do you have an idea based on developing a physical product or industrial process? This interactive workshop will focus on experience, exchanges, and hands-on practice, ensuring you leave feeling energized, inspired, and full of momentum for your projects.

🎯 Limited seats, so don’t wait!
👉 Sign up now: https://lnkd.in/eNeYUcMP

As a reminder, women make up less than 30% of the workforce in the industrial sector today and only 43.7% of business creators. It’s our collective duty to make a change!

Our Wishes for 2025

As we close the chapter on 2024, a year filled with intense efforts and significant progress, we step into 2025 with renewed energy and ambitious goals.

2025: where innovation meets action

This year, for Ecollant, is the one where innovation meets action: we are moving resolutely toward the industrialization of our project. After months of research, experimentation, optimization, and fruitful collaborations, we are ready to bring one of our polyamide recycling solutions to industrial scale. This is a key milestone, essential to addressing environmental challenges and the growing expectations of the industry.

Our commitment to circular textiles

Our commitment remains unwavering: to recycle textile waste containing polyamide mixed with other materials, thereby reducing their ecological footprint, focusing on end-of-life solutions and raw material extraction.
Why tap into natural resources when we can create new collections from recycled polyamide made from our own clothes?
In doing so, we aim to offer a credible alternative to the linear practices still dominant in the sector. But we know this transformation cannot happen alone. It relies on an ecosystem: you! Since day one in 2019, you have been our partners, funders, and companions on this journey, sharing our successes and vision.

A year of challenges to take on together

The year ahead will bring both technical and human challenges. We will strengthen our collaborations and mobilize our expertise to accelerate the transition to a circular economy in the textile industry. Our goal is to develop our first production tool for the #scaleup phase.

2025 will be a decisive year, and we are eager to share it with you. Thank you to all who have supported us so far. Your trust and support are key drivers for our continued progress.

To each and every one of you, we wish a year filled with meaningful projects, bold collaborations, and collective successes. Together, we have the power to build a more sustainable future. So, are you ready to take on the challenges of 2025?

From the entire Ecollant team, wishing you a wonderful and inspiring year ahead! 🙌

What is planned obsolescence? An issue that also affects textiles!

Planned obsolescence refers to a strategy where certain products are deliberately designed to last only a few years, encouraging consumers to renew their purchases more frequently. While this practice is often associated with electronics, it also exists in the textile sector.

Planned obsolescence in textiles: how it works

In the textile industry, obsolescence can be subtle but very much present.

Here’s what we observe:
1️⃣ Poor quality fibers: clothes made with low-quality materials, which wear out quickly, pill, or even tear after a few washes.
2️⃣ Fast fashion: a frantic pace of collections pushing people to refresh their wardrobe quickly, even when the clothes are still in good condition.
3️⃣ Clothes hard to repair & recycle: fragile seams or blends of non-recyclable fibers often make repairs or recycling difficult, reinforcing their short life cycle. 😉 Paul Dumesny & Olivia PERRIER

In short, it’s a production designed to be fast and cheap, at the expense of everything else! What if we could change this? 🙌

On our side, we continue to work with the French Institute of Textile and Clothing (IFTH) 😉 Carole AUBRY, Axelle Champion, PASCAL RUMEAU to develop durable filaments from every perspective.

Why is this problematic?

Textile obsolescence, particularly linked to synthetic fibers like polyamide, has impressive consequences.

Polyamide, one of the most used synthetic fibers, represents 5.4 million tons produced each year. It is part of a global textile industry that exceeds 70 million tons.

👉 The problem? Limited recycling and extremely slow decomposition, which makes it a major contributor to plastic pollution.

At the same time, the lifespan of clothes has halved in the past 15 years, fueling overconsumption and an explosion in textile waste.

These figures highlight the urgency of developing both technical and cultural solutions by raising awareness among consumers to make more responsible clothing choices.

Our commitment with Ecollant

We are working daily to counter this short-life logic. Our research aims to recycle textiles containing #polyamide to reduce the impacts linked to the end of life of these products, whether they are of good or poor quality.

Our goal is to industrially recycle these textiles, which until now were buried or burned, and also raise awareness among the broader public so that everyone makes more responsible consumption choices in the textile sector. 😉

Source: McKinsey & Company Circular Economy Platform

CréerDemain & FrenchtrechNight

Create Tomorrow 2024: innovation in the age of AI

This Thursday, November 28, we were at Create Tomorrow for the 4th consecutive year, an event we always look forward to. This year, held at Polytech Dijon, the event is more than just a day: it’s a true crossroads of ideas and exchanges for entrepreneurs, project leaders, and economic actors in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region.

This edition focused on the theme Exploring Innovation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, and it did not disappoint!

Reconnecting with our innovation ecosystem

What made this day even more special was reconnecting with our innovation ecosystem, with partners who have supported us since our beginnings: DECA-BFC with Sophie MAGNIEZ, the AER BFC with Angélique Favier, Bpifrance with Jordan GIBIER, and also Cécile COLSON from ADEME. Of course, it was also a chance to get updates on regional projects and to meet brilliant project leaders like Anas Erridaoui (congratulations Fung’it for the award!) and Gaël MATTEN. We’re all going through the same industrial scale-up steps since our incubation! We always take the opportunity to reflect on the path we’ve traveled and share our progress and short-term projects. 🚀 #industrialproject

A huge thank you to the organizers, who create the perfect setting for exchange and reflection.

The French Tech Night

The evening: A Dive into the French Tech Universe 🐔

In the evening, we continued the beautiful day at the French Tech Night, an invitation-only event that immersed us back into the vibrant atmosphere of our own French Tech labeling. What a joy to meet up with fellow startup founders from the AuxR Lab, our “home,” where our project was born; but also, with engaged players from our beautiful region like Nicolas Soret!

This evening was also marked by some key moments:
🔍 Discovering the most daring startups of the year, pushing the boundaries of innovation.
🏆 Celebrating the winners of the 2024 edition of French Tech BFC, an award that highlights the dynamism of our region.
🤝 Exchanging, networking, and creating synergies with so many inspiring players, each playing a key role in this ecosystem we love so much. 😉

Memories and a goal for the future!
These moments remind us how innovation is, above all, a human adventure. Exchanging, learning from one another, reconnecting after several years… it is through these interactions that the true strength of our project is forged.

#TextileWaste and Stocks – We Value It: Yesterday!

Valorizing textile scraps and dormant stocks

This event was organized by TECHTERA, the textile competitiveness cluster, in collaboration with the Lyon Metropolis, Lyon Pacte PME, and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The day was dedicated to a central issue: the valorization of production scraps and dormant stocks in the textile sector, aiming to enhance textile waste resources! ♻️

Mapping textile waste resources

From the presentation of the first results of the mapping work of industrial waste initiated in 2023, now extending throughout the region, to the discussions about the valorization of end-of-life textiles, the team had the chance to focus more on industrial waste, as well as end-of-life textiles made from #polyamide.
👉 RECYCLING OBJECTIVE
The discussions helped highlight available resources, which had previously not been revalorized, and identify potential synergies with industrial players who are increasingly mapping their waste more accurately.
👉 SCALE-UP OBJECTIVE
The day was rich in exchanges with stakeholders from all sectors: holders of dormant stocks, sorters (Jean-Nicolas CARRELET), innovative startups (still Recyc’Elit🌍 with Jonathan Benguigui & Jean-Michel Duivon), and companies specialized in valorization.

We were able to explore and identify together possible paths to give new life to these underused resources, accelerating the shift toward a more circular economy, including #preconsumer textiles. 😉 Aurélie Warin

Why this matters

Why is this important? Because every piece of production scrap that is valorized, every dormant stock reintegrated into the production chain, along with our end-of-life textiles, is necessary to meet the #2030 and #2050 goals! 😉

Collaboration among all actors in the value chain is crucial to making valorization a concrete reality, with tangible impacts.

A big thank you to the organizers for the quality of this inspiring event and their ongoing commitment to transforming the sector! 💪

What if we told you about R&D programs?

Have you heard of enzymes?

What are enzymes?

Imagine a tiny, super-efficient machine that speeds up chemical reactions in organisms, like in the human body, for example. These machines are proteins found in all living organisms, and they help do a lot of things, like digest our food or produce energy.

At Ecollant, we are always ready to take on technological and environmental challenges that would help evolve the textile industry by replacing certain traditional processes that harm the environment with greener processes.

Tackling a major recycling puzzle

That’s why, for several years, we have been exploring how these little enzyme wonders can help us solve a major puzzle: extracting nylon from the mixed fibers found in our end-of-life clothing to create a nylon that has the same quality as virgin material, produced by traditional petrochemical processes.

Elastane and nylon, for example, are two materials used as filaments interwoven together at a very small scale to make tights. This is what makes their separation and recycling impossible with traditional technologies.

But, once separated, if we could develop an enzyme capable of breaking down the nylon, it would be a revolution! We could recycle all mixed textiles, including tights, much more easily and in a more eco-friendly way. 🌍♻️

Our team of researchers is developing and testing this solution in the lab. To put it very simply, the process is like looking for the perfect key to open a very special lock.

Enzymes at the heart of our innovation

This approach is at the heart of our innovation. By exploring the power of enzymes, we are working to develop breakthrough recycling methods that are even more effective than those available today. Moreover, these are technologies with a measured environmental impact that aim for a more virtuous textile production, which has been previously labeled as the second most polluting and CO2-emitting industry in the world.

Stay tuned to discover our next advancements! 🌱🔬

1 Year of Partnership with Provence TLC: A Celebration!

A year of partnership with Provence TLC

A year ago, we partnered with Provence TLC, an expert in sorting and valorizing textiles, to support stakeholders in the textile industry with their textile waste valorization projects! (TLC = Textiles, Household Linen, and Shoes)

Since then, we have been focusing on the collection of end-of-life textiles, starting with tights, socks, and leggings, which became our first case study. This waste stream is quite homogeneous in the territory and contains a significant amount of nylon: an average of 85%.

12 tons collected: a new record

Over the past two years, our partnership has continued to grow, and the amount of collected materials has steadily increased!
This year, we collected a total of 12 tons of used textiles across all developed streams – a true record for us, which also signals significant progress in the years ahead! 🌍♻️ (2021 data: 900 kg / 2022 data: 3 tons) (😉 Refashion)

To celebrate this anniversary, we visited Vitrolles, at the heart of their sorting center, to meet the teams and better understand the challenges related to textile sorting, specifically our waste stream. We were warmly welcomed, as always by all our partners, but this time we even got the chance to step into the sorting line and select our nylon-polyamide items 😮

Why tights can’t be recycled

To begin our research and develop our recycling process in 2021, we decided to start by exploring tights and nylon stockings because, believe it or not, they do not get recycled!

Belonging to the category of “complex textiles” or “blended textiles,” they make up about 47.4%* of the collected waste. These items are made of two materials: nylon and elastane. It is this very small-scale bi-composition that makes mechanical recycling impossible.

So, as a consumer of textiles made from nylon (where the labels on your clothing indicate multiple materials), know that you can participate in these recyclability studies with us by dropping off your worn items at nearby voluntary collection points, along with any other clothes that cannot be repaired or “upcycled.”

To highlight this successful collaboration during our first year, we have a little surprise planned for the end of June!

A big thank you to Provence TLC for participating in our innovative project and contributing to transforming the textile industry into a more circular one!
🤝 Zeynep GULES and all the field teams, who tirelessly sort and re-sort our TLCs, for their dedication, passion, and commitment.

According to a Re_Fashion study after 3 experimental campaigns on this waste stream

Victory for Ecollant at the We Impact Contest – Decarbonation Challenge!

Another trophy to add to our collection at the office!

Ecollant wins the We Impact contest

This Thursday, we teased our participation in the final of the We Impact contest, organized by G.A.C. Group (GAC) France in partnership with Bpifrance, Grant Thornton France, Vianeo, Greenage, @Ipsilon, and C2E. This prestigious award aimed to highlight innovative initiatives with a positive environmental impact. We were so excited to be selected for a spot on the podium, and our nylon recycling project convinced the jury! ♻️

The final at the Bpifrance Hub

The final, held on Thursday, October 3, 2024, at the Bpifrance Hub, brought together key players in climate transition, with inspiring speeches from Nicolas Dufourcq (CEO – Bpifrance) and Christophe Boytchev (President, G.A.C. Group).

We had the honor of pitching our project alongside two other finalists who were equally committed, with whom we had the chance to share our preparations just before: Mathias Fonlupt from ENTENT and Vincent BACHET from OCTOMETHA, all presenting solutions aimed at reducing environmental impacts from human activities.

A happy outcome, as we took first place in the contest!

This victory is a milestone in the development of our industrial-focused organization, supported by the GAC teams and their network of partners. We will continue to accelerate, even more!

A big thank you to the organizers and the jury who supported this project, and congratulations to all the “architects” of sustainability who were present on Thursday night (😉 Célia Poncelin)!

A masterclass on climate transition

In addition to the final pitch and awards ceremony, the event hosted a masterclass on the theme “How to Accelerate France’s Climate Transition by 2030?” with expert speakers: Anne-Sophie Marin – ESG Director / Climate Plan Capital Development at Bpifrance, Thomas Rialan – Co-founder of Carbon Cutter, a CSR strategy consulting firm, Yamina Saheb – Founder and CEO of the OpenExp network, GIEC member, Brigitte Roeser-Herlin, Senior advisor at METRON, Climate Tech member of French Tech 2030.

The evening ended with a cocktail dinner, a necessary moment of sharing to go further into sustainability concepts and our vision for decarbonation.

Once again, a huge thank you to the entire organization for this event!

Ecollant at the Deeptech Tour in Dijon

Ecollant at the 2024 Deeptech Tour in Dijon

On Wednesday, we were present in the Cité des Ducs de Bourgogne for the third edition of the Deeptech Tour, an unmissable event for innovation in France and a key moment for the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region.

A national plan for deeptech

Organized in partnership with Bpifrance and regional players, particularly DECA-BFC, this event is part of both the region’s 25 years of innovation and the national Deeptech plan, which aims to launch 500 startups each year from research laboratories.

Deeptech: This is where it all begins! A convergence point for researchers, startups, PhD students, students, and investors, this tour is dedicated to breakthrough technologies, and that’s what “Deeptech” is all about. These innovations transform industries, revolutionizing how we heal, eat, travel, work, and of course, dress, by integrating new environmental technologies.

On stage to share our journey

In addition to having the chance to speak on stage about the support we’ve received from the regional ecosystem, particularly from Emmanuel Cordelle & Jordan GIBIER regarding #deeptech, we took advantage of this opportunity to reconnect with the heart of this innovation ecosystem and share the latest advancements in our textile recycling project and nylon transformation.

💡 On the agenda: pitch sessions, roundtables, inspiring testimonials, and demonstrations from Deeptech startups across all sectors and at various stages of maturity. And of course, some amazing encounters, like with Mariane Schueller, for example 😉

We were thrilled to return to Dijon, where it all began for us, incubated with Xavier Boidevézi, Gaël MATTEN, Jean-Patrick CORSO… And all the others we thought of fondly!

A big thank you to this region that has offered us, continues to offer us, and will undoubtedly continue to offer us opportunities for accelerating the development of our technology on an industrial scale.

A look back at our first participation in the National Polymer Recycling Conference!

Ecollant at the National Polymer Recycling Conference

This week, Ecollant had the opportunity to participate for the first time in the National Polymer Recycling Conference held in Clermont-Ferrand, and what an experience it was! It was a true honor to be among the experts invited on stage to present our innovation 💡

Sharing our progress on nylon recycling

Thanks to a dedicated pitch session focused on the textile sector, we were able to share the latest developments in our work on recycling nylon from mixed fiber textiles. It was also a chance to showcase our industrial ambition and the associated roadmap. Of course, we took the opportunity to engage in discussions, collect insights on polyamide needs and constraints, and gather feedback from other experts in polymers and textiles who were present 🔬

We were impressed!
It’s rare to see such a large community of specialists gathered in one place for two days, and we can only applaud the organization by POLYMERIS (😉 Adrien Simon & Julie Malaquin & Roxane Girard), AXELERA (😉 Clémentine Devarenne), the teams from @CMD and Michelin (😉 Stéphane Gégout & Pierre Robert), and it was also an opportunity for us to reconnect with the TECHTERA teams, Clara Leclaire, the French Institute of Textile and Clothing (IFTH) (😉 Carole AUBRY & Axelle Champion), CETIA (😉 Pauline Arrouasse & Marilou Hargoues), and many others.

In summary, this conference was a true source of inspiration. The ultimate goal is to reach our industrial demonstrator, and we will need all of you to get there! 🚀

Discussions beyond textiles

In addition to the insights shared about the textile sector, we took the opportunity to learn more about other industries also affected by the environmental evolution of polymer consumption. Alongside Edwina MILAN and Franck LAFONTAINE, we attended roundtables on essential topics such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the traceability and management of textile waste. The conclusion is clear: we must act swiftly and collaboratively to meet the 2030, 2040, and 2050 targets!

A huge thank you for making this event a great success, and to all those who contributed to its richness. We leave with many ideas in mind, ready to continue advancing and innovating for more effective and sustainable textile recycling!

A look back at Textile 360: an inspiring event at the heart of the textile transition!

Ecollant at Textile 360

Last week, we were at Textile 360, an unmissable event organized by our long-time partner, Tremplin, which brings together a large part of the textile end-of-life chain every year. It’s always a pleasure to reconnect with the key players in this essential sector – from collectors and sorters to valorization startups, and the companies transforming these textiles into innovative materials.

Here’s a recap of this enriching evening:

Structuring and optimizing the textile sector

The Textile 360 presentation kicked off the discussions, sharing the latest advancements to structure and optimize the sector in France. The outlook is clear: it’s possible to give a second life to our used textiles through collaborations between complementary stakeholders. 👏 Virginie Belle!

Roundtable on innovative materials

The roundtable on innovative materials made from textile waste brought together key speakers: Cécile Martin from Refashion, Emmanuelle Ledoux from the National Institute of Circular Economy, @Corinne Farce from TECHTERA, Armand Bernoud from @Tissium, and Cédric NIEUTIN from Post Industrial Crafts.

They shared inspiring insights on the realities and promises of materials made from recycled textiles. Fascinating testimonies that remind us that, although challenges remain, innovative solutions are multiplying to transform the sector.

Finally, we wrapped up the evening with a sharing moment coordinated by the Tremplin01 teams, a perfect opportunity for exchanges and creating new synergies 😉 Pauline Gamore and very enjoyable to mutually discuss our progress, such as with Stan Muraczewski & Marine PERRAUD (Recyc’Elit🌍) for example.

These exchanges with our partners and other participants reaffirm our mission: each end-of-life textile can contribute to a more virtuous circular sector, both in open-loop and closed-loop systems. We are already looking forward to seeing how these initiatives will take shape and are eager to actively contribute to them!