The Crucial Role of Startups in Fashion’s Green Transition: Our Take!

Fashion: an industry in need of transformation

Fashion, often seen as a field of creativity and self-expression, is also one of the most polluting industries. Responsible for 20% of global wastewater and 10% of carbon emissions, the sector faces an urgent need for transformation. Startups are at the heart of this shift, bringing essential innovation, agility, and environmental commitment to an industry that can be rigid and slow to evolve.

The key role of startups

Unlike large corporations, often constrained by heavy structures and complex processes, startups have the flexibility to explore groundbreaking solutions. They pioneer new materials—sometimes bio-based—, technologies for full traceability, and truly circular models.

At ECOLLANT, we’ve chosen to tackle a specific challenge: textile waste management, particularly polyamide blended with other fibers. This material, omnipresent in our clothing, presents a complex recycling challenge, which we address with an innovative extraction process that enables closed-loop recycling.

From innovation to impact: the power of collaboration

🔹 But innovation alone is not enough.
Real impact comes from strong collaborations with industrial players. By combining the agility of startups with the execution power of large companies, we can move from promising prototypes to large-scale implementation. This synergy significantly accelerates fashion’s green transition. In addition, consumer engagement, public policies, and financial support are essential to sustain a more sustainable industry.

💡 At ECOLLANT, we believe that fashion’s transformation must be a collective priority, an entire industry effort.
Thinking in terms of a full supply chain might take longer than isolated efforts, but it creates deeper impact, from collecting end-of-life textiles to launching circular products on the market.

♻️ From recycled to recyclable!

Since our founding in 2019, we’ve worked tirelessly to build a winning model, supported by key institutional players who have been instrumental in our journey. These partners, including the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region, AER BFC, ADEME, Bpifrance, and CHEMTECH, have trusted us with dedicated support programs and continue to accompany us toward our industrial-scale deployment.

📊 Data source:

  • United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2018 report: “Fashion and the Environment”, highlighting the massive environmental footprint of the textile industry.
  • The Good Goods article: “What is ‘Grand Export’?” – 2025.

Women in Industry & Tech: A Driver for Sustainable Innovation

Lady’J Tech: celebrating women in industry

At ECOLLANT, we firmly believe that industrial innovation thrives on diversity. That’s why we’re proud to see Agathe participate once again in Lady’J Tech, an event dedicated to showcasing the contributions of women in industry, technology, and innovation.

This inspiring day in Dijon was packed with insightful discussions and valuable exchanges:
🔬 Dij’ Innov Connect – Exploring the potential of public research and regional innovation
🏭 Lady’s Industry – Empowering women’s careers in industry and inspiring the next generation of talent
🌍 Women in Tech & Industry on an International Scale – Learning from three remarkable European women who are pushing the boundaries of innovation

The impact of deeptech innovation across industries was highlighted, particularly in healthcare, mobility and textiles.

Why diversity drives innovation

👉 Why does this matter?
Because bringing more women into industry means embracing fresh perspectives, innovative approaches, and more sustainable solutions. At ECOLLANT, we transform textile waste into valuable resources, and we know that building the industry of tomorrow requires diverse talents.

A huge thank you to the organizers and speakers who are driving real change! 🔥
Dijon Métropole & Ville de Dijon

➡️ What do you think are the key actions to accelerate women’s presence in tech and industry? 💬

#Flashback: When an Event Changes Everything, Nostalgia Kicks In 🌟

A look back at the European Circular Fashion Trophies

At the end of December, we had the honor of attending the 2024 edition of the European Circular Fashion Trophies, this time as 2022 laureates. 🏆♻️✂️

For us, this event was a direct time-travel back to 2022 in Lille, when we proudly stood as finalists, ready to pitch our project with impact. A bit nervous before stepping onto the stage, we spent time engaging with an inspiring and complementary ecosystem, meeting incredible projects like Blue&Pastel-Le Rêve Bleu, Juin fait le lin, MooM, Perpète, and Chandam.

Beyond the competition, this was the kind of event where we found ourselves aligned both with decision-makers—convinced we can help achieve the 2050 sustainability goals—and fellow greentech innovators.

🌱 Building Meaningful Collaborations

Building meaningful collaborations

One of the most exciting outcomes? Collaborating with forward-thinking individuals committed to textile waste collection within their companies.

A standout memory: Tristan Michel de la Morvonnais, CSR leader at SNCF Voyageurs Nord.
Inspired by our approach, he invited us to present ECOLLANT in his company’s monthly webinars, encouraging employees to collect and recycle their end-of-life polyamide textiles.

👉 The result?
A true success: SNCF employees embraced our vision, setting up internal collection points within their offices. 🚉 But the story didn’t stop there—ECOLLANT was invited to “Voyage en Nord,” a unique initiative where we boarded the Paris-Lille train to engage passengers in sustainability discussions… even taking the mic at the onboard café! 🎤

💼 What’s next?

The future: fashion brands and recyclers together

Beyond textile collection and the incredible exchanges we’ve had along the way, the future lies in collaborations between fashion brands and recyclers.
Our mission remains clear: help brands create truly sustainable collections using breakthrough textile recycling technologies.

A massive thank you to everyone who has crossed our path and contributed to growing this project. Every meeting matters, every opportunity opens new doors—and this is just the beginning! 🚀

🙏 Special thanks to Anthony Jaugeard and the entire team behind the European Circular Fashion Trophies—we’ll always be thrilled to attend this high-value European competition!

Wrapping Up Global Industrie 2025… What an Experience!

Global Industrie 2025: what an experience

Four intense days filled with inspiring connections, strategic discussions, and game-changing confirmations: the industry of the future is already taking shape, and ECOLLANT is proud to be part of it 🚀.

💬 “In this world, who are the front-line fighters besides the soldiers?”

This powerful statement from François Bayrou, delivered during his speech on Thursday, resonated deeply. Industry is on the front line—driving both reindustrialization and the ecological transition.

🔹 Key Takeaways from This Edition

Key takeaways from this edition

✔️ Circular economy is no longer a side topic—it’s now central to industrial strategies, unlocking real business opportunities.
ECOLLANT demonstrated this alongside fellow industrial pioneers like Carbon Waters, BATCONNECT, ENTENT, MAPEA, and many more.
💡 We proved that circularity is not only feasible—it’s profitable.

✔️ Strategic partnerships are accelerating the shift towards sustainability.
Discussions with industrial leaders, local authorities, and key players like ADEME and Métropole de Lyon highlight a shared commitment to scaling sustainable models.

✔️ The Collectif Startups Industrielles France is playing a vital role in helping innovations scale from prototype to full industrial deployment—a challenge we know all too well!
Special thanks to Véronique GRICOURT 🧩 for giving us the stage at CSI’s booth on Thursday, and to Alphadio Olory-Togbe for the great discussion on industrial scale-up in textiles!

🔹 What’s Next for ECOLLANT?

What’s next for Ecollant?

This event has reinforced our ambitions:
💪 Scaling up our polyamide recycling technology
♻️ Pushing for a zero-waste, circular textile industry
🚀 Strengthening our industrial partnerships to accelerate deployment

An enormous thank you to Bpifrance, La French Fab, Start Industrie, and everyone who made this #JourBleu possible!

The industry of the future will be circular—or it won’t exist at all. 💪

📸 Photo Credits: Alexandre Badot & Start Industrie

The Filming Continues… This Time at AuxR_Lab!

A France 3 documentary filmed at Ecollant

After our participation in the Génération Slow Fashion conference, it’s now our turn to welcome Pauline Pelsy-Johann and the team from Dynamo Production as they film their documentary, soon to be broadcast on France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. 📺

💡 From Theory to Practice

From theory to practice at AuxR_Lab

During the conference, we discussed the future of responsible fashion, the challenges of fast fashion, and concrete solutions to make the industry more circular. Today, it’s all about action: moving from ideas to real-world impact. At Ecollant, we’re proving that another path is possible—one where complex textile waste isn’t a dead end but a valuable resource. From chemistry to industry, from lab to large-scale application, we’re demonstrating how textile recycling can truly work.

📍 Welcome to AuxR_Lab
This is where our innovations come to life, where textile recycling challenges meet tangible solutions, and where the industry of tomorrow is being shaped—more sustainable, more circular. We’re excited to open our doors to the Dynamo Production team and share the behind-the-scenes journey of our commitment to a more responsible fashion industry.

👀 More to come soon… Stay tuned!

A big thank you to Pauline Pelsy-Johann, Dynamo Production, and France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté for shining a light on these crucial topics!

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!