UTILE — Recycling end-of-life military PPE into new protective textiles
A European Defence Fund project advancing circular economy for soldier protection — supporting European strategic autonomy in defence
UTILE is a project we are particularly proud of as a leading company in recycled high-performance fibers. Within UTILE, Hilaturas Arnau recycles helmets and bulletproof vests at the end of their service life through the circular economy — so that newly produced protective equipment contains a percentage of fibers recovered from decommissioned assets.
The challenge: sustainable soldier protection
Improving the sustainability and environmental consciousness of EU armed forces, in line with circular economy principles, requires novel approaches to the production and use of Soldier Personal Protection Equipment (SPE) following the reduce, recover, reuse, repurpose and recycle (5R) approach.
However, due to the complex logistics of collection and dismantling, and the technical difficulty of separating and recycling multi-material parts, these SPEs have traditionally had a defined lifetime and been disposed of afterwards — with substantial environmental and economic impact. UTILE addresses exactly this gap.
Hilaturas Arnau's role
As the recycling specialist in the consortium, Hilaturas Arnau recovers the high-performance fibers — including para-aramid and PBO — from end-of-life helmets and ballistic vests, and reintroduces them into new technical yarns suitable for the next generation of soldier protection equipment. This closes the loop on some of the most valuable protective materials in the defence supply chain.
Why it matters for European strategic autonomy
By recovering high-value defence fibers within Europe, UTILE reduces dependency on imported virgin materials and strengthens the resilience and sustainability of the European defence textile supply chain — a direct contribution to European strategic autonomy in defence.
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