Culture
On October 27th, the German Embassy in Washington DC hosted the German Unity Day (TDE) with the theme “Clean Tech”. This year’s TDE was attended by approximately 3,000 guests, including representatives from the U.S. government, Congress, business, media, culture, and diplomacy. As part of the NRW-USA -Year, two companies from North Rhine-Westphalia had the opportunity to present themselves at the TDE.
The company eeden develops an innovative chemical upcycling technology to turn old textiles back into new, high-quality textiles. According to eeden, every second a truckload of used textiles is incinerated or dumped in landfills – in total, this is the case for more than 70% of used textiles worldwide. The start-up focuses on used textiles with a high cotton and cotton-polyester content, from which it recovers the resources for new fibers. Cotton is converted into cellulose and polyester into its basic building blocks. These can then be seamlessly integrated into the existing fiber industry.
During TDE, eeden co-founder Steffen Gerlach had the opportunity to deepen the dialogue on the opportunities and challenges of transforming the textile system into a sustainable circular economy. Discussions with designers, recyclers, policy think tanks, sustainability advocates and investors provided eeden with multiple perspectives and avenues for future collaboration and innovation in the textile sector.
For eeden, the TDE was a great way to foster new connections within the US sector, open doors for potential partnerships and create an opportunity for face-to-face interaction with local investors.
Lidrotec CEO and co-founder Alexander Igelmann was equally positive in his post-event comments: “The German Unity Day celebrations at the Embassy in Washington DC were a wonderful experience. Not only was it a great event in terms of the celebration itself, but some very good contacts were made during the event that will help our company LIDROTEC. A continued cooperation between NRW and the USA beyond the NRW-USA Year is very desirable, especially for young companies that are about to make the leap into the USA”.
LIDROTEC is a Bochum-based start-up company that builds systems for cutting microchips, reducing the scrap rate to almost 0%. In this way, semiconductor companies save costs and increase their productivity. A new technology is used: laser cutting in liquids. The first system will be delivered to a customer in early 2024.
