Dutch Ministry of Defence win Procura+ Innovation award for recycled textiles
Image by "Raigo Pajula"
The Dutch Ministry of Defence's innovative approach to the procurement of over 160,000 textile items for its personnel using recycled content took home the 2017 Procura+ Award for Innovation Procurement of the Year. The ceremony took place as part of the Conference on Innovation Procurement which was held in the context of the Estonian Presidency of the European Union in Tallinn on 17 October.
The procurement process followed a circular policy and explored recycled content in the new textiles. The products contained at least 10% recycled post-consumer textile fibres, with two contracts awarded: one for supply of 100,000 towels and 10,000 cloths, and one for 53,000 overalls. MODNL consulted the market and challenged suppliers to source post-consumer textile fibres, with the winning bid creating estimated savings of 233,000,000 litres of water, 69,000 kg CO2 and 23 MJ of energy.
The City of Lahti (Finland) took the Runner-up prize in the Innovation category for its use of waste roof materials for road construction.
For more information on the Procura+ Awards, visit the Procura+ European Sustainable Procurement Network website.