United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Swedish denim brand Nudie Jeans have since 2020 collaborated on a pilot project in Tunisia, under the European Union (EU)-funded SwitchMed program. The project demonstrates viability of sourcing and reintroducing recycled textile fibers from second-quality products to fabricate new jeans. Till date, the pilot project has recycled 6,530 pairs of second quality jeans into 16,000 new pairs of jeans with a composition of 20 per cent of recycled cotton.
Together with Nudie Jeans’ local suppliers, the collaboration demonstrates the business case for high-value recycling of second quality jeans in the Tunisian textile and clothing value chain. According to a textile waste mapping study from UNIDO, Tunisia’s textile and clothing industry generate over 31,000 tons of pre-consumer textile waste each year, out of which over half is either 100 per cent cotton waste or ‘cotton rich waste.’ A second phase of the collaboration will pilot the recycling of post-industrial textile waste like cutting scraps.
