dimpora® BIO MONO

AI Quick Summary

The outdoor and fashion industries rely on waterproof, breathable membranes often made with PFAS (“forever chemicals”) and hazardous solvents. These substances persist in the environment, contaminating water, soil, wildlife, and humans. Most membranes also use mixed, incompatible materials that cannot be recycled, so garments end up in landfills or incineration, increasing chemical pollution. dimpora® BIO MONO offers a new approach. This high-performance membrane eliminates PFAS and harmful solvents through a clean, solvent-free process, avoiding toxic emissions in production and use. Made from compatible polymers, it enables true mono-material garment design, allowing easy recycling without disassembly. With over 60% bio-based content from non-food castor oil, it also reduces fossil dependence while maintaining waterproof, breathable performance. Idea description   The outdoor and fashion industries currently face a major sustainability and circularity challenge linked to high-performance waterproof-breathable garments. Most technical laminates are composed of multiple incompatible layers such as polyester or polyamide face fabrics, membranes, adhesives, coatings, and finishes combined to achieve the required waterproofness, breathability, durability, and comfort. While these multilayer constructions enable high performance, they also make products almost impossible to recycle at end-of-life. Separating the different layers is technologically complex, economically unrealistic at industrial scale, and often impossible without destroying the value of the materials. Additionally, the relatively low cost of virgin materials makes disposal at end-of-life the most convenient and economically attractive option, discouraging recycling and downcycling efforts. As a result, most technical garments are landfilled or incinerated despite increasing environmental pressure and growing regulatory demands toward circularity and PFAS elimination.   This problem impacts the entire value chain. Recyclers cannot efficiently process such textile waste streams because material incompatibility prevents high-value recycling. Manufacturers and brands face increasing pressure from upcoming regulations such as the EU Strategy for Sustainable Textiles and PFAS restrictions while lacking scalable circular solutions compatible with performance requirements. Consumers increasingly demand sustainable products but currently have limited access to technical garments that are truly recyclable and lower impact. Existing “sustainable” alternatives often reduce only one part of the problem, for example by introducing recycled content while still relying on incompatible multilayer constructions or fossil-based chemistries.   dimpora® BIO MONO addresses this challenge through a new type of high-performance laminate system designed specifically for circularity. The concept relies on mono-material compatibility by using a performant membrane made from the same polymer family as the textile layers, enabling end-product monomateriality. Unlike conventional waterproof-breathable laminates relying on fluorinated chemistries, solvents, and incompatible materials, dimpora® BIO MONO is PFAS-free, solvent-free, and more than 60% bio-based through the use of castor oil derived polyamide feedstocks. The technology therefore addresses both chemical pollution and recyclability simultaneously.   The innovation goes beyond replacing hazardous substances. The key objective is to enable realistic textile-to-textile recycling pathways for technical garments. By designing laminates where fabrics and membranes belong to compatible polyamide systems, the end products can theoretically be shredded, reprocessed, and transformed back into usable raw materials without complex separation processes. This significantly reduces technological barriers, recycling costs, and waste generation while enabling future closed-loop systems for performance textiles.   The project specifically focuses on validating this recycling feasibility experimentally, which is currently the missing critical step toward industrial implementation. While the membrane and laminate technology itself already exists at an industrially relevant scale, the recycling loop has not yet been demonstrated in practice. The objective of the project is therefore to conduct recycling trials to determine whether these mono-material laminates can effectively be recycled and transformed back into membrane-capable materials while maintaining sufficient processability and functional performances.   The project will investigate several critical industrial questions that currently prevent implementation of circular membrane systems:   whether recycled laminates can be mechanically processed back into usable membrane formulations, the acceptable contamination thresholds from non-compatible components such as PUR adhesives, whether blending with virgin material is required and at what percentage, how many recycling cycles remain technically feasible before degradation becomes critical, whether waterproofness, breathability, and mechanical performances remain sufficient after recycling, and whether only specific polyamide fabric constructions are compatible with the process.   The planned recycling workflow includes collection of sufficient laminate waste streams from manufacturing partners, shredding of laminates, compounding into polymer pellets, and entering dimpora’s proprietary membrane production, e.g. incorporation of fillers, film extrusion trials, membrane formation, washing processes, and secondary lamination steps. The recycled materials will then be characterized regarding processability, morphology, waterproofness, breathability, and mechanical performance. These trials are essential because theoretical monomateriality alone does not guarantee industrial recyclability. The project therefore aims to move from conceptual circularity claims toward practical validation under realistic industrial conditions.   The radical innovation directly addresses multiple strategic needs of the Fashion & Lifestyle industry.  It supports the transition away from PFAS and hazardous solvent-based production systems while maintaining the technical performances required for outdoor applications.  It introduces monomaterial design principles enabling simplified recycling and future circular manufacturing models.  It supports the development of new recycling ecosystems and business models for technical textiles by creating higher-value recyclable waste streams. It contributes to reducing textile waste, fossil resource dependency, and chemical pollution while preserving product functionality and durability.   The project also aligns strongly with current industrial and regulatory priorities. Circularity, recyclability, Digital Product Passport, eco-design requirements, and PFAS restrictions are becoming central drivers of innovation in the textile sector. Brands increasingly require scalable solutions capable of combining sustainability claims with measurable technical feasibility. The project therefore addresses not only environmental concerns but also competitiveness and future compliance readiness for European and Swiss textile industries.   The expected beneficiaries extend across the value chain. Recyclers would benefit from simplified and more valuable textile recycling streams. Manufacturers would gain access to recyclable laminate technologies compatible with future sustainability requirements. Brands would be able to develop high-performance garments with credible circularity claims and reduced environmental footprint. Consumers would gain access to technical products designed for circularity without compromising on performance. Society and the environment would benefit from a reduced overall environmental and social impact: lower landfill and incineration rates, reduced fossil resource dependency, lower chemical emissions, and reduced accumulation of persistent pollutants such as PFAS.   Alignment with  Sustainable Development Goals   The project contributes to several Sustainable Development Goals. It supports SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) through circular product design and recyclable material systems. It contributes to SDG 13 (Climate Action) by reducing dependence on fossil-based materials and enabling future material retention within the textile value chain. It aligns with SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) through the development of scalable sustainable material technologies and industrial recycling processes. The elimination of PFAS and solvent-heavy production also contributes indirectly to SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), and SDG 15 (Life on Land) by reducing chemical pollution and environmental persistence of hazardous substances.   Implementation and Risks   The workplan is structured around several phases. The first phase focuses on identifying and collecting representative laminate waste streams and defining suitable recycling conditions. The second phase includes shredding and compounding trials to evaluate polymer processability and contamination sensitivity. The third phase focuses on reprocessing recycled material into membrane-capable films and laminates. The fourth phase includes characterization of waterproofness, breathability, mechanical properties, and process stability after recycling. Finally, the project aims to establish preliminary recycling design rules and define industrial feasibility limits for future scale-up.   Several technical risks exist. The recycled laminates may not be processable back into membrane structures, or the processing windows of the different polymer layers may differ too significantly. Adhesive contamination may partially or fully prevent recycling or induce excessive degradation. Mechanical or functional performances after recycling may become insufficient for technical textile applications. It is also possible that only specific fabrics within the polyamide family are compatible with the recycling process. However, understanding these limitations is itself highly valuable for future industrial implementation because the sector currently lacks practical recyclability data for such systems.   Resources   The project requires several key resources and work packages. Sufficient laminate waste streams must first be collected from manufacturing partners to ensure representative industrial conditions. Recycling and compounding activities will be conducted together with OST as recycling and processing partner. Additional work packages include material characterization, membrane processing trials, and performance testing of recycled systems. The consortium also plans to collaborate with a sustainability analysis partner for future comparative LCA activities based on the technical recycling data generated during the project.   The Innovation Booster funding would primarily be used to finance recycling and processing trials at project partners. The funding is particularly critical because the missing element today is not membrane development itself, but the practical validation of the recycling loop through industrially relevant recycling experiments. The funding would support shredding, compounding, extrusion, membrane reformulation, lamination trials, laboratory characterization, and analysis of recycled materials. It would therefore enable generation of the first practical validation data required to assess whether circular mono-material membrane systems are realistically achievable for technical textiles, building on OST’s theoretical validation as our POC partner at pilot scale.   More broadly, the Innovation Booster - Fashion & Lifestyle program would provide a critical framework to accelerate collaboration between industrial and research partners while reducing the gap between promising sustainable material innovation and circular industrial implementation. The program would support early-stage de-risking of recycling concepts, facilitate ecosystem collaboration, and help position Swiss and European actors at the forefront of circular high-performance textile systems.

Project Idea Metadata

Project Idea Name: dimpora® BIO MONO
Date: 4/16/2026 1:39:48 PM
Administrators:

Project Idea Description

Idea description

The outdoor and fashion industries currently face a major sustainability and circularity challenge linked to high-performance waterproof-breathable garments. Most technical laminates are composed of multiple incompatible layers such as polyester or polyamide face fabrics, membranes, adhesives, coatings, and finishes combined to achieve the required waterproofness, breathability, durability, and comfort. While these multilayer constructions enable high performance, they also make products almost impossible to recycle at end-of-life. Separating the different layers is technologically complex, economically unrealistic at industrial scale, and often impossible without destroying the value of the materials. Additionally, the relatively low cost of virgin materials makes disposal at end-of-life the most convenient and economically attractive option, discouraging recycling and downcycling efforts. As a result, most technical garments are landfilled or incinerated despite increasing environmental pressure and growing regulatory demands toward circularity and PFAS elimination.

This problem impacts the entire value chain. Recyclers cannot efficiently process such textile waste streams because material incompatibility prevents high-value recycling. Manufacturers and brands face increasing pressure from upcoming regulations such as the EU Strategy for Sustainable Textiles and PFAS restrictions while lacking scalable circular solutions compatible with performance requirements. Consumers increasingly demand sustainable products but currently have limited access to technical garments that are truly recyclable and lower impact. Existing “sustainable” alternatives often reduce only one part of the problem, for example by introducing recycled content while still relying on incompatible multilayer constructions or fossil-based chemistries.

dimpora® BIO MONO addresses this challenge through a new type of high-performance laminate system designed specifically for circularity. The concept relies on mono-material compatibility by using a performant membrane made from the same polymer family as the textile layers, enabling end-product monomateriality. Unlike conventional waterproof-breathable laminates relying on fluorinated chemistries, solvents, and incompatible materials, dimpora® BIO MONO is PFAS-free, solvent-free, and more than 60% bio-based through the use of castor oil derived polyamide feedstocks. The technology therefore addresses both chemical pollution and recyclability simultaneously.

The innovation goes beyond replacing hazardous substances. The key objective is to enable realistic textile-to-textile recycling pathways for technical garments. By designing laminates where fabrics and membranes belong to compatible polyamide systems, the end products can theoretically be shredded, reprocessed, and transformed back into usable raw materials without complex separation processes. This significantly reduces technological barriers, recycling costs, and waste generation while enabling future closed-loop systems for performance textiles.

The project specifically focuses on validating this recycling feasibility experimentally, which is currently the missing critical step toward industrial implementation. While the membrane and laminate technology itself already exists at an industrially relevant scale, the recycling loop has not yet been demonstrated in practice. The objective of the project is therefore to conduct recycling trials to determine whether these mono-material laminates can effectively be recycled and transformed back into membrane-capable materials while maintaining sufficient processability and functional performances.

The project will investigate several critical industrial questions that currently prevent implementation of circular membrane systems:

whether recycled laminates can be mechanically processed back into usable membrane formulations,
the acceptable contamination thresholds from non-compatible components such as PUR adhesives,
whether blending with virgin material is required and at what percentage,
how many recycling cycles remain technically feasible before degradation becomes critical,
whether waterproofness, breathability, and mechanical performances remain sufficient after recycling,
and whether only specific polyamide fabric constructions are compatible with the process.

The planned recycling workflow includes collection of sufficient laminate waste streams from manufacturing partners, shredding of laminates, compounding into polymer pellets, and entering dimpora’s proprietary membrane production, e.g. incorporation of fillers, film extrusion trials, membrane formation, washing processes, and secondary lamination steps. The recycled materials will then be characterized regarding processability, morphology, waterproofness, breathability, and mechanical performance. These trials are essential because theoretical monomateriality alone does not guarantee industrial recyclability. The project therefore aims to move from conceptual circularity claims toward practical validation under realistic industrial conditions.

The radical innovation directly addresses multiple strategic needs of the Fashion & Lifestyle industry.

It supports the transition away from PFAS and hazardous solvent-based production systems while maintaining the technical performances required for outdoor applications.
It introduces monomaterial design principles enabling simplified recycling and future circular manufacturing models.
It supports the development of new recycling ecosystems and business models for technical textiles by creating higher-value recyclable waste streams.
It contributes to reducing textile waste, fossil resource dependency, and chemical pollution while preserving product functionality and durability.

The project also aligns strongly with current industrial and regulatory priorities. Circularity, recyclability, Digital Product Passport, eco-design requirements, and PFAS restrictions are becoming central drivers of innovation in the textile sector. Brands increasingly require scalable solutions capable of combining sustainability claims with measurable technical feasibility. The project therefore addresses not only environmental concerns but also competitiveness and future compliance readiness for European and Swiss textile industries.

The expected beneficiaries extend across the value chain. Recyclers would benefit from simplified and more valuable textile recycling streams. Manufacturers would gain access to recyclable laminate technologies compatible with future sustainability requirements. Brands would be able to develop high-performance garments with credible circularity claims and reduced environmental footprint. Consumers would gain access to technical products designed for circularity without compromising on performance. Society and the environment would benefit from a reduced overall environmental and social impact: lower landfill and incineration rates, reduced fossil resource dependency, lower chemical emissions, and reduced accumulation of persistent pollutants such as PFAS.

Alignment with Sustainable Development Goals

The project contributes to several Sustainable Development Goals. It supports SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) through circular product design and recyclable material systems. It contributes to SDG 13 (Climate Action) by reducing dependence on fossil-based materials and enabling future material retention within the textile value chain. It aligns with SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) through the development of scalable sustainable material technologies and industrial recycling processes. The elimination of PFAS and solvent-heavy production also contributes indirectly to SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), and SDG 15 (Life on Land) by reducing chemical pollution and environmental persistence of hazardous substances.

Implementation and Risks

The workplan is structured around several phases. The first phase focuses on identifying and collecting representative laminate waste streams and defining suitable recycling conditions. The second phase includes shredding and compounding trials to evaluate polymer processability and contamination sensitivity. The third phase focuses on reprocessing recycled material into membrane-capable films and laminates. The fourth phase includes characterization of waterproofness, breathability, mechanical properties, and process stability after recycling. Finally, the project aims to establish preliminary recycling design rules and define industrial feasibility limits for future scale-up.

Several technical risks exist. The recycled laminates may not be processable back into membrane structures, or the processing windows of the different polymer layers may differ too significantly. Adhesive contamination may partially or fully prevent recycling or induce excessive degradation. Mechanical or functional performances after recycling may become insufficient for technical textile applications. It is also possible that only specific fabrics within the polyamide family are compatible with the recycling process. However, understanding these limitations is itself highly valuable for future industrial implementation because the sector currently lacks practical recyclability data for such systems.

Resources

The project requires several key resources and work packages. Sufficient laminate waste streams must first be collected from manufacturing partners to ensure representative industrial conditions. Recycling and compounding activities will be conducted together with OST as recycling and processing partner. Additional work packages include material characterization, membrane processing trials, and performance testing of recycled systems. The consortium also plans to collaborate with a sustainability analysis partner for future comparative LCA activities based on the technical recycling data generated during the project.

The Innovation Booster funding would primarily be used to finance recycling and processing trials at project partners. The funding is particularly critical because the missing element today is not membrane development itself, but the practical validation of the recycling loop through industrially relevant recycling experiments. The funding would support shredding, compounding, extrusion, membrane reformulation, lamination trials, laboratory characterization, and analysis of recycled materials. It would therefore enable generation of the first practical validation data required to assess whether circular mono-material membrane systems are realistically achievable for technical textiles, building on OST’s theoretical validation as our POC partner at pilot scale.

More broadly, the Innovation Booster - Fashion & Lifestyle program would provide a critical framework to accelerate collaboration between industrial and research partners while reducing the gap between promising sustainable material innovation and circular industrial implementation. The program would support early-stage de-risking of recycling concepts, facilitate ecosystem collaboration, and help position Swiss and European actors at the forefront of circular high-performance textile systems.

dimpora® BIO MONO offers a new approach. This high-performance membrane eliminates PFAS and harmful solvents through a clean, solvent-free process, avoiding toxic emissions in production and use. Made from compatible polymers, it enables true mono-material garment design, allowing easy recycling without disassembly. With over 60% bio-based content from non-food castor oil, it also reduces fossil dependence while maintaining waterproof, breathable performance.