Recycling

A new project addressing the technology-capacity gap in sorting for reuse and recycling to ensure that high-quality raw materials from non-wearable textile waste can be made available on a large scale, is in the works.

Sorting and recycling could be more effective if a tag made of photonic fibres is woven into the fabric. A team of researchers has done just that and is now evaluating ways to move forward with the commercialisation of the technology.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has said that the market for textile waste in the region does not meet the criteria to be a well-functioning market, with a large chunk of it traded as secondary raw material for downcycling activities, and a minuscule volume recycled into new textiles for new products.

Innovation in fibre-to-fibre recycling will be key in keeping textile fibres in the loop as volumes of non-reusable clothing are set to dramatically increase, exhorts a study commissioned by the umbrella organisation for recycling industries in Europe.

The $3 million Dhaka-based Recycle-Raw claims to be the only compliant textile-garment waste-sorting company in Bangladesh and on mission to change the garbage sector into gold.

The Swiss textile recycling project Texcircle, which ended a month ago, showed exactly how a group of organisations can make it work together by contributing their own know-how, efforts, finances and materials. Tina Tomovic, Senior Research Associate of the project at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, which helmed the project, and Prof Brigitt Egloff tell texfash.com how the project worked, and what should be the way forward for textile recycling.

RITTEC Umwelttechnik GmbH, based in Lüneburg, Germany, has succeeded in recycling textiles containing polyester and creating new textiles from the material itself. A digital product passport is one of the highlights of the project.

Recover, a leading manufacturer of low-impact, high-quality recycled cotton fibre and cotton fibre blends, will be setting up Bangladesh's largest recycling plant in association with BEXIMCO.

The ITMF award that the Green Machine received in September is only the latest feather in its decorated cap. Developed by the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA), the Green Machine has been making waves since its launch in 2016. Katherine Chan, Director (Business Development) at HKRITA, talks about the challenges that had to be encountered, and the excitement that the Green Machine has generated.

Worn Again Technologies, an innovator in chemical recycling, has secured yet another round of £27.6 million funding, the start-up’s most successful tranche since its founding, dedicated to a largescale demo plant that will leverage ground-breaking polymer processing technologies to upcycle 1,000 tonnes of textiles per year.