Innovative circular solutions for textile waste reduction in Southwest Wales
Choose2Reuse are a not-for-profit organisation, based in Llanelli, who promote sustainability in Wales by repurposing and diverting thousands of tonnes of unwanted items eg clothing and bedding from landfill annually, they play a key role in retaining valuable resources within the Welsh economy. They are now looking for innovative solutions to revalorise their non reuseable textile waste streams, ensuring that these materials remain in Wales and are transformed into new products, feedstocks or industrial inputs. Solving this challenge will help to provide a circular solution not only for their waste but also their customer base of 100 Charity shops in the Southwest Wales region. This challenge is part of the Southwest Wales Net Zero Industry Launchpad iX (Innovation Exchange) pilot, enabling selected innovators to access Innovate UK grant funding of up to £25,000 to deliver a 3 month pilot project through the iX programme.
Opportunity
Challenge opens
24/02/2026
Challenge closes
07/04/2026
Benefit
This challenge seeks ideas for the retention and revalorisation of waste textiles, by focusing on keeping textile waste streams within Wales and converting them into circular, higher value materials. Textiles make up approximately 2.9% of all municipal waste in Wales, presenting a significant opportunity for Welsh recycling and resource recovery. Through initiatives such as the WRAP Textiles 2030 agreement, the Welsh Government is encouraging more sustainable and circular textile management across the region. The Challenge Holder is therefore seeking innovators who can help Southwest Wales unlock the untapped value of its non‑reusable textile waste streams by transforming them into new materials, feedstocks or products that can be used within Welsh industries, supporting regional circularity and reducing the carbon impact of waste. This challenge is part of the Southwest Wales Net Zero Industry Launchpad iX (Innovation Exchange) pilot, enabling selected innovators to access Innovate UK grant funding of up to £25,000 to deliver a 3 month pilot project through the iX programme.
Background
The Net Zero Industry Launchpad is using the Innovate UK Business Connect Innovation Exchange (iX) platform to offer an exciting new pilot competition using the iX platform to support challenges that benefit or impact on Southwest Wales.
The aim of this competition is to support outstanding innovation projects that will impact on Southwest Wales. The pilot - South West Wales Launchpad Net Zero iX Challenges, aims to foster collaborative partnerships between a challenge holder & solution provider to deliver a project that that will accelerate the adoption of industrial circular economy, net zero or decarbonisation innovations within and across sectors for the Net Zero Industry launchpad in Southwest Wales.
Choose2Reuse are a not-for-profit organisation, based in Llanelli, who promote sustainability in Wales by repurposing and diverting thousands of tonnes of unwanted items, such as clothing, bedding and household items, from going to landfill each year.
Through their established collection and sorting operations, they currently process and resell around 97% of the materials they handle. However, there is still small, but still significant volume of non-reusable textile (NRT) waste remains. Although this represents only 3% of their overall throughput, it still equates to approximately 144 tonnes per year of shredded textile material that cannot currently be reused.
To maximise circular economy outcomes within Southwest Wales, Choose2Reuse is seeking innovative solutions to revalorise these non‑reusable textile waste streams, ensuring that valuable resources are retained within the region and transformed into new materials, products or feedstocks that contribute to local industrial and net‑zero ambitions.
This challenge is brought to you by:
