ELIIT Project – NANOCORK®

A New Beginning for Cork Waste

Every time a bottle of wine is opened, a small residue remains: the cork stopper. For years, this material had no clear purpose beyond limited recycling. Today, thanks to the NANOCORK® project, that same cork can be transformed into part of sustainable textiles—an alternative to leather with new design possibilities for garments, footwear, and accessories.

This project is the result of the collaboration between the design company Lebiu SRL (Sardinia) and the ecological textile finishing team at Care Applications (Alcoy, Alicante), within the European initiative ELIIT Project, led by AITEX and funded by the EU COSME program for SMEs.

The Challenge: Sustainable Fashion Without Sacrificing Style

The textile industry is one of the most polluting in the world, consuming large amounts of water, chemicals, and energy. The goal of NANOCORK® was clear: to offer environmentally friendly garments with enhanced properties and finishes, leveraging the unique characteristics of cork.

Thanks to ECOFinish® atomization technology, cork waste can be applied to textiles without immersion baths and with minimal chemical and energy consumption, achieving average liquor ratios of 1:1. The result is an innovative textile finish, such as bio-denim, combining style, sustainability, and quality.

Technological Innovation

The key to NANOCORK® lies in the ability to apply a natural finish through controlled atomization. ECOFinish® turns water and finishing agents into a fine mist that spreads evenly across the material, ensuring reproducibility and precision.

This process:

• Drastically reduces water and energy consumption.

• Minimizes chemical usage.

• Generates no waste.

• Adapts to existing machinery.

There is currently no equivalent process available on the market.

Social and Economic Impact

NANOCORK® delivers not only environmental benefits, but also social and economic advantages:

• It offers a vegan and biodegradable alternative to leather.

• It responds to the demand of conscious consumers who value both the product and how it is made.

• It opens new revenue opportunities for the cork industry, promoting a circular economy.

• It contributes to local employment and supports population retention in rural areas.

The Role of Europe and COSME

The project was made possible thanks to the support of the COSME program (Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs) of the European Union, through the ELIIT initiative (European Light Industries Innovation and Technology).

This support, which included €70,000 in funding and specialized technical assistance, enabled:

• Care Applications to optimize ECOFinish® for cork application.

• Lebiu to install a prototype in its laboratory in Sardinia.

• Progress toward the commercialization of bio-denim and other Nanocork® fabrics.

Conclusion

NANOCORK® is a real example of how technological innovation and EU support are driving the transition toward circular, ethical, and sustainable fashion.

From the bottle to the runway, cork finds a new life in textiles.

🔗 More information available on the European Commission website.