Sue Stockdale talks to Monique Maissan, CEO of Waste2Wear about her entrepreneurial journey to manufacture textiles from recycled plastic bottles. Monique saw an opportunity to make a positive impact in the textile industry, one of the most polluting industries in the world, and pivoted her business to focus on this. Monique emphasises the importance of seeing waste as a valuable source and viewing it not as a problem to be disposed of, but as a resource that can be repurposed and reused, so that we can shift towards a more sustainable and circular economy.  

About Monique Maissan
Dutch entrepreneur, Monique Maissan specialises in sustainable solutions for the textile industry.  As CEO of Waste2Wear she is a pioneer in creating products from recycled plastics. This includes fabrics and finished products from recycled plastic bottles (RPET) and bags from recycled polypropylene (RPP) from discarded domestic appliances and single use food containers. Through Monique’s leadership, Waste2Wear has won several industry awards for their unique products; blockchain transparency and RPET testing method (RA-3) that identifies recycled plastic bottle content in fabrics.
Find out more via website | LinkedIn | Instagram

Time Stamps
[02:17] Textile industry pollution concerns.
[09:51] The impact of marketing on recycling.
[14:07] Transparency in recycling industry.
[15:54] Ensuring authenticity in supply chains.
[22:59] Sustainability and changing demands.
[25:16] The importance of innovation.
[32:18] A sustainable legacy.
[35:24] Viewing waste as valuable resource.

Key Quotes

• “I hope that I actually could close the business because there's no more plastic to recycle. That is my goal."
• “The textile industry is a very polluting industry”
• “We calculate with every step what is the reduction in water, in energy and in carbon footprint compared to the virgin equivalent”.
• “To date we have recycled about 100 million plastic bottles”.
• “Post consumer recycled polypropylene is only being recycled 1% in the world”.
• “The millennials, when they are sitting with a Gen Z it's going to be a comparison of how sustainable are you, not if you are sustainable”.
• “The key to any business is you need to keep innovating”.
• “I am inspired by young people who actively want to make a difference.”
• “It's not always good to keep on doing things. It's also good to stop things”.

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Producer: Sue Stockdale 
Sound Editor: Matias De Ezcurra