Joining Technologies as a Key Factor for Circular Textiles
By Claudia Wonneberger and Jorn Wonneberger
7th July 2026
The European textile industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation. As demands for resource efficiency and sustainability continue to increase, the concept of a circular economy is becoming increasingly important. While sustainable and recycled materials are already being used in many applications, the environmental impact of a product is not determined by material selection alone. Equally important is the way in which the individual components of a textile product are joined together.
Joining technologies play a decisive role in determining whether a product can be repaired, recycled as a mono-material stream, or disassembled into its individual components. As a result, they are becoming a central element of circular product design.
For several years, Wonneberger Manufaktur has been investigating how textile products can be designed for circularity from the very beginning. One important focus is the implementation of consistent mono-material approaches. Today, many products are already manufactured using sewing threads made entirely from polyester. In addition, further components such as zippers – with the exception of the slider – snap fasteners, buckle systems, binding tapes and webbings can also be integrated in polyester versions.
This approach opens up new opportunities, particularly for the company’s in-house ecological family brand NEONON. By using carefully coordinated polyester components, garments can be developed that can be returned directly to existing polyester recycling streams without requiring complex separation processes. At the same time, current developments demonstrate that a high degree of circularity does not necessarily compromise functionality, durability or product aesthetics.
Practical development work also reveals the current limitations of circular design concepts. The sportswear sector, for example, requires a high degree of elasticity for body-close garments. Pure polyester can only provide limited stretch performance and only in highly specialized technical knit constructions. In many applications, elastomeric fibres still cannot be fully replaced.
Although modern recycling technologies are increasingly capable of separating elastomeric components from the primary material stream, elastomers themselves are currently not recyclable. Furthermore, residual elastomer content may still reduce the quality of the recycled base fibres. Consequently, further research is required both in the field of residue-free elastomer removal and in the development of highly stretchable textiles made entirely from polyester.
Another significant challenge can be found in children’s outdoor and schoolwear, where reflective elements are essential safety features and indispensable in many applications.
From a circular economy perspective, reflective materials are among the most challenging textile components. Currently available reflective tapes typically consist of complex multi-material composite structures assembled using permanent adhesive systems. Due to this material complexity and the variety of adhesives involved, economically viable material recycling is currently not feasible. As a consequence, such components often have to be disposed of as residual waste.
For these applications, “Design for Disassembly” strategies are becoming increasingly important. The objective is to design products in such a way that specific components can be removed selectively at the end of the product’s life cycle and processed separately.
As part of its development activities, Wonneberger Manufaktur is investigating a range of potential solutions. These include detachable hook-and-loop fastening systems, welding technologies, and innovative sewing techniques.
Particularly promising is the use of thermally dissolvable sewing threads, such as Amann’s Smart Stitch yarn. This specialized thread loses its mechanical strength at defined temperatures between approximately 170 and 195 °C, enabling the targeted disassembly of individual product components. Reflective elements, for example, could be removed before the actual recycling process without damaging the remaining materials.
Within current research projects, Wonneberger Manufaktur produces textile prototypes and experimental samples for the systematic evaluation of different material and joining combinations. The findings are documented and integrated into a knowledge database. The aim is to provide reliable data for future eco-design decisions and to support the development of circular textile products.
The transition towards a circular textile economy requires close collaboration between research institutions, material developers and manufacturing companies. Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular possess valuable production expertise that enables innovative concepts to be tested under real manufacturing conditions and translated into market-ready solutions.
Joining technologies will therefore play a key role in the future of circular textiles. The circularity of a textile product does not begin at the end of its life cycle – it is already determined during its design and construction phase.