Students Hogeschool Zuyd (Netherlands) take home top three awards for solutions to textile waste

Last Friday, February 11, the national finale of the Conference for Circular Economy took place in The Netherlands. Students from the university of applied sciences Zuyd in Maastricht took home the gold, silver and bronze medal for their initiatives around combating textile waste.

As part of the Dutch Circular Economy Conference, students from across the country went head to head in a ‘hackathon’, with the aim to present the best solution to the global textile waste problem.

The six students behind ‘Fairtrace’, from Hogeschool Zuyd in the southern city of Maastricht, The Netherlands, won the national final.

A jury awarded the team’s concept Fairtrace which adds a QR code and a ‘materials passport’ to clothing labels so consumers can see its sustainability rating by simply scanning a code, with 32 points.

The second place in the national hackathon was for another student initiative from Zuyd: 'Ecocycle'.

The four students behind this idea aimed to tackle two problems at once: textile waste and period poverty. Their proposal was to make washable sanitary pads from unused clothing.

’FitAdvisor’, another student team from Zuyd, finished in third place. The students behind this initiative developed a 3D system to make online shopping easier and minimise clothing waste.

With FitAdvisor, consumers create their own virtual mannequin with the same body measurement and clothing sizes as themselves and can then try on different sizes of clothes in a digital fitting room, and see the sustainability rating of the clothing piece in question at the same time.

Previously in the finals at the local level, the jury of the southern provinces of Limburg and Brabant in The Netherlands sent three student teams to the national final.

A total of 65 students from two universities of applied sciences in the southern provinces combined, Hogeschool Zuyd in the province of Limburg and Hogeschool Fontys in Brabant, applied for the hackathon.

Apart from the teams from Zuyd and Fontys only two other teams from universities of applied sciences had made it to the national final.

With the Circular Economy Conference and its accompanying hackathon competition, The Netherlands concluded its annual Circular Economy Week.