In yet another breakthrough for chemical recycling of mixed textile waste, all that stretchable activewear and athleisure from yoga, soccer and other sports could soon be recycled as researchers have come up with a process that separates mixed textiles containing cotton, polyester, spandex, and nylon.
- Further refinement of this process holds the potential to achieve a global textile circularity rate of 88%.
THE RESEARCH: The experiments by the University of Delaware with its Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies broke the polyester and spandex into their monomers and dissolved the nylon in the fibre mix and separated it from cotton.
- The research demonstrated efficacy in managing complex postconsumer mixed textile waste, simulating real-world conditions of unsorted textile waste disposed in landfills.
- Sorting such waste is recognised as a time-consuming and costly endeavour. The process can recover all components, but further improvements will be necessary.
THE RESULTS: Some of the recovered components can be integrated directly into the textile and clothing manufacturing value chain for textile-to-textile recycling and the others into different applications.
- While the recovered cotton and nylon had reduced quality, the nylon is usable for clothing.
- Recovered cotton could be used for making certain fibres, such as viscose, or blended with new cotton to improve quality.
- Preremoval of certain textile dyes and chemicals will enable one to obtain colourless components.
THE CONTEXT: Increasing global population and wealth have increased the demand for fibre production, with 113 million tonnes of global fibre produced in 2021 and 149 million tonnes projected by 2030 if business continues as usual.
- The rising demand for textiles and shorter life span compared to a generation ago due to fast fashion result in a substantial accumulation of waste, estimated to be 92 million tonnes globally yearly.
- Less than 1% of textile waste is recycled, with approximately 73% dumped in landfills or incinerated, 14% lost during production and collection, and 12% downcycled into lower-value applications. This results in a notable loss of valuable resources and substantial environmental issues.
- Mechanical recycling, the commonly used method due to its simplicity and low cost, cannot handle multifibre textiles, additives, or colourants.
- Besides, it shortens the fibre length and decreases its quality to lower-value products, such as insulation material, mattress stuffing, and wiping cloths.
FUNDING: This work was supported as part of the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, and Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
RESEARCH TEAM: The project was conceived and designed by Erha Andini, Sunitha Sadula and Dionisios G. Vlachos.
