Textile Recycling: An opportunity
The circularity movement is being driven by consumer demand and textile industry ambitions, but technology is what will truly make it happen.
The Challenges and Solutions
There should be no illusions about the obligations of the textile sector or the textile world.
The cost of rapid fashion is that around 10% of Carbon Dioxide emissions from human activity come from the production of clothing. The apparel business has been fueled by a clearly linear value chain, despite the requirement for circularity in our resource consumption. A large portion of clothing is burned or dumped in landfills, despite the fact that it may be recycled into new clothing or insulation or resold. Circularity amongst textiles has been noticeably lacking.
However, consumer demand, laws, technology, and media pressure are all causing things to change. A profound concern for the environmental impact of textiles is finally replacing our ignorance about the cost to the planet of our entire wardrobes.
The necessity of using more sustainable raw materials in the manufacture of fiber and textiles is also becoming more widely recognized. In the meantime, initiatives that push recycling to the limit of genuine circularity are thriving, and current technologies are proving to be incredibly flexible when it comes to textile recycling.
Some solutions have been created especially for textiles, while others are the result of extensive knowledge in the pulp and paper industry. Together, they provide one or more complementary technologies to meet the demands of various textile recycling problems. This will cover the entire value chain, from fiber recovery to chemical modification and yarn manufacture preparation.
Recycling Textiles
Chemical Treatment Process
Mechanical Recycling: The Plus
Transforming Recycling Efforts
Sustainability & Recycled Cotton
The state of the Feed Material
Whether the subsequent textile recycling process is based on mechanical, chemical, mixed, or other customer-specific treatment, conditioning of textile waste establishes the groundwork. The type of waste (clothes, linens, carpets, white or colored textiles, etc.), the feeding conditions (such as baled or loose feed material), the size of the shredded textiles that must be produced, the presence of impurities like zippers, the output purity, the capacity, and all other downstream processing requirements are some of the many factors that affect the technology selection.
Nonwoven production lines, short staple fiber spinning mills for yarn “respinning” with the creation of woven or knitted fabrics, including blends of up to 100% recycled fibers, or downstream chemical processes for the production of new man-made fibers, if necessary, are the main options that the mechanical recycling process can be used to prepare.
We Can Now Also Upcycle
Finding circular solutions is a top priority for the major textile firms, who are particularly eager to incorporate recycled fiber into their clothing. Up until now, the only way to recycle post-consumer textile waste has been to “downcycle” it into lower-quality, lower-value goods like cleaning rags. While downcycling plays a significant role in the overall recycling process, textile waste may now be repurposed as textile yarn through a process known as “upcycling,” which transforms it into a product of comparable, if not superior, quality and value.
We are witnessing a parallel evolution in recycling with the addition of upcycling opportunities to the current downcycling procedures. The impact on feed material conditioning is that in order to produce high-quality secondary textile material for the following stages of the textile recycling process, we must be even more exact in our sorting and shredding procedures. For instance, fiber length, which influences fiber strength, is dependent on the downstream process. Additionally, there are pollutants to control that are external, such bale wires, and connected to the textiles, like buttons and zippers. All things considered, we are continuously refining process processes to increase purity and decrease textile loss.
Textile-to-Textile Mechanical Recycling
The mechanical recycling method eliminates the need for chemicals, uses less water, and requires less space for the installation of machinery.
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Checmical Recycling
Complete production lines for recycling operations including washing, mixing, cooking, bleaching, and drying are included in this process.
Nonwovens Textile
One of the most important ways to recycle textiles into new products is to turn them into advanced nonwoven felts.
