Recycling

In what could be a game-changing research, a bunch of young chemists from Europe promise to revolutionise sustainability in the apparel industry by breaking down the polyester in polyester-cotton blended garments while preserving the cotton fibres.

The UK, in a policy decision, has reiterated the critical importance that repair-reuse-recycle will play in supporting the move towards more circular living.

There is currently a lack of information regarding the materials waste produced across Bangladesh’s textile and apparel industry production chain. And a prerequisite for keeping its buyers as also the market, the country urgently needs to reduce carbon emissions by 2030 using recycled materials.

The Finnish city of Lahti, some 100-odd km to the north of capital Helsinki, has made stupendous progress through its incentive-based collection of textile waste, and has now launched a design competition on how to tackle discarded textiles.

The Denim Deal Monitor 2022 says there is a positive development in the increase in application of post-consumer recycled cotton in denim garments and jeans, with 7 of the 8 participating brands and retailers aiming for higher targets than the 5%-PCR-content in the coming years.

Lenzing and Södra are pooling their decades-long experience, knowledge and technology to develop the OnceMore process under a project, which will receive €10 million in funding from the European Union. The joint project will make a significant contribution to the EU’s action plan for circularity.

The UK Fashion & Textile Association (UKFT) is working towards a blueprint to innovate, combine and advance existing and new supporting technologies to overcome current barriers to materials circularity.

Researchers at the Manchester Metropolitan University are working to find a way to make sustainable, water-absorbent fabrics at home by using bacterial cellulose (BC) — a biodegradable, biomaterial.

In a major step towards fighting plastic pollution, France based biotech company Carbios has secured funding of €53.5 million to set up the world’s first 100% PET biorecycling plant at Longlaville in the Grand-Est region.

Waste entrepreneurs, waste workers in India’s Silicon Valley have been brought under the aegis of the H&M Foundation to enable textile waste collection, sorting, and selling to generate revenue for waste pickers, as also create a circular B2B textile service model, starting with the hotel industry.