What is Textile Recycling?

What is Textile Recycling?

Textile recycling is the process of recovering fiber, yarn, or fabric and reprocessing the material into new, useful products. Textile waste is split into pre-consumer and post-consumer waste and is sorted into five different categories derived from a pyramid model. Textiles can be either reused or mechanically/chemically recycled.

There has been a shift in recent years toward recycling textiles because of new regulations in several countries. In response, companies are developing products from both post-consumer waste and recycled materials such as plastics. Results from academic studies demonstrate that textile reuse and recycling are more advantageous than incineration and landfilling.

Waste

Over 100 billion garments are produced annually, most of which end up in incinerators or landfills. The EPA reported that in 2018 alone, 17 million tons of textile municipal solid waste (MSW) was generated. The fashion industry is arguably one of the second biggest polluters next to the oil industry. By textile recycling, it decreases landfill space, creates less pollution, and reduces the consumption of power and water. Most materials used in textile recycling can be split into two categories: pre-consumer and post-consumer waste.

Pre-Consumer

Pre-consumer waste involves secondary materials from the textile, fiber, and cotton industries. These products are repurposed for other industries, such as furniture, mattresses, coarse yarn, home building, automotive, paper, and apparel.

Pre-consumer can also refer to overstock or left-over garments that retailers have not been able to sell to consumers. These left-over garments are then repurposed and used to create new pieces of clothing while being environmentally sustainable.

Post-Consumer

Post-consumer waste consists of textile garments and household articles that have been discarded by their owners. These textile articles are typically discarded because they are damaged, worn out, or outdated. 85% of post-consumer waste in the United States, however, is found in landfills. The remaining post-consumer waste can be directed towards second-hand retailers to be resold or passed on to warehouses dedicated to textile recycling.

Processing

Reuse

Textile reuse is the preferable processing method because it extends the original product’s lifetime. Reuse occurs when textile owners rent, trade, swap, borrow, or inherit products through second-hand stores, garage sales, online/flea markets, or charities. In reusing textiles, the textile is sometimes changed through cutting and sewing or through decorating the textiles with paints, patches, and other textiles in a process referred to as DIY.

Recycling

Mechanical

Mechanical processing is a recycling method in which textile fabric is broken down while the fibers are still preserved. Once shredded down, these fibers can be spun to create new fabrics. This is the most commonly used technique to recycle textiles and is a process that is particularly well developed for cotton textiles. Mechanical processing protocols can differ depending on the material, so it also requires several levels of sorting before the process begins.

Textiles must be separated by fabric composition and by color to avoid re-dying and bleaching of materials. Once sorted, the textile materials can then be shredded, washed, and separated into smaller fibers. These individual fibers are then aligned together in a process known as carding in preparation to be spun together. Some fibers, including cotton, must be spun along with a carrier fiber to maintain higher quality. These carrier fibers are most commonly cotton, organic cotton, or polyester. Once the fibers are spun into new yarn, they can be used to create new textiles. This process functions as a semi-closed loop of recycling. The number of times a material can be recycled is dependent on the quality of the fibers, which decreases with each cycle of mechanical processing.

Mechanical processing can also be used with materials other than textiles. One common example of this is polyester. In the case of polyester, the recycled materials are plastic bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). In a similar manner to textiles, plastics are sorted by color and type when they arrive at recycling facilities. The plastic is then shredded and washed to break it down and remove contaminants. The dried plastic remnants are molded into PET pellets and then undergo extrusion to create new fibers. These new fibers can then be used to create new textiles.

Chemical

Chemical processing occurs when textile reuse is infeasible. This process is not yet widely implemented, but there are companies that are researching and integrating chemical recycling. The major small-scale production sites are from Eco Circle, Worn Again, Evrnu, and Ioncell.

Chemical recycling is used on synthetic fibers, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET). These synthetic fibers can be broken down to create fibers, yarn, and textiles. For PET, the starting materials are first broken down to the molecular level by using chemicals that facilitate glycolysis, methanolysis, hydrolysis, and/or ammonolysis. This act of depolymerization also removes contaminants from the starting material such as dyes and unwanted fibers. From here, the material is polymerized and used to produce textile products.

Unlike the mechanical method of recycling, chemical recycling produces high-quality fibers similar to the original fiber used. Therefore, no new fibers are needed to support the product of the chemical process. Different chemicals and processes are used for other materials such as nylon and cellulose-based fibers, but the overall structure of the process is the same.

Textiles Made from Recycled Materials

Many companies develop their products from a combination of recycled post-consumer textile waste as well as other recycled materials such as plastics. This can be done for textiles other than clothing as well.

One specific region that is more progressive in applications of recycled textiles is Scandinavia, which has created mainstream market products. In Sweden, companies such as Lindex and H&M are including pre-consumer and post-consumer waste fibers within their new clothing lines.