How Technology can help Close the Loop of Textile Recycling
The textile has been the great forgotten in terms of recycling worldwide. The textile industry has been, until now, outside the ecological regulations, but new…
Read moreRecycling technology can be found in a variety of process industry markets. Specific recycling equipment is essential for processing and handling particular recyclable materials. Recycling innovations are available for these recycling industry markets
Industrial recycling systems and equipment, components, accessories specifically used for processing and measuring recyclable materials.
Brows these categories for the latest innovations.
Recycling process technology
Browse our equipment guide categories to find and contact the specified manufacturer.
Related news and category experts are shown below.
With our technical team of experts, deliver an important contribution to industrial recycling challenges. Our experts have gained a great deal of knowledge about specific recycling applications and technology. Do you want to become an expert for all application specific questions for your area of expertise? We now accept new experts!
A list of important international events / trade fairs / conferences / webinars and courses with additional information.
Videos related to handling or processing recyclable materials.
Segmented into both recycling markets, and recycling operations.
Textile recycling is the process of recovering clothing and other textiles for material recovery or reprocessing into valuable products. Processing of recovered material depends on the condition, composition, and resale value of the material.
A complete textile recycling process includes the donation of textiles, collection, sorting, processing, and finally transporting the recovered materials.
Two primary sources of textiles for recycling are generated:
Textile recycling is increasingly recognized as a crucial process because of its environmental benefits. Textile recycling decreases landfills, reduces energy and waste consumption, reduces pollution, and decreases the chance to contaminate the soil with toxic substances released in landfills.
Criticism on the textile recycling industry is the lack of adequate recycling processes. Many large-scale garment recycling systems provide a small benefit and can pollute as producing raw fabric.
Textile recycling methods aim to break down fabrics into a material reprocessed into new valuable products. Natural fibers are often shredded, blended, and combed to be processed into cloth.
There are two dominant textile recycling methods: mechanical processing and chemical processing. Mechanical processing is mainly performed on regular fibers, while chemical processing focuses on synthetic fibers.
The most common textile recycling technique is mechanical processing, which often occurs after the material separation process as the fabrics first need to be extracted from a waste stream. To avoid re-dying, raw material is sorted based on color. After complete separation, the textile materials are shredded and separated into fibers. Following this process, carding occurs, a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans, and intermixes fibers in preparation for further treatment. The mechanical processing of textiles is finalized by spinning the fibers with cotton fibers to ensure higher quality.
Chemical processing breaks down and reforms synthetic fibers such as PET, nylon, and polyester. Chemical processing is a relatively new phenomenon when performed for recycling purposes. Chemical processing of fibers includes depolymerization, which removes material such as dyes and unwanted fibers to diminish contamination and make the material stream process-ready. After this, polymerization occurs, producing much higher quality fibers than the fibers created by mechanical processing.
The recycling of textiles differs depending on whether the recyclable fiber is natural or synthetic. For natural fibers, the textile recycling process starts by sorting incoming processible textiles and sorting them based on the type of material and color. Color sorting prevents re-dying to save energy water and diminish pollution. After sorting, the fibers are shredded, whereas sometimes other materials are added to ensure higher quality. A carding process cleans the now combined material stream. Concluding the process, the yarn is spun, woven, knitted, or compressed for textile filling purposes.
With synthetic fibers, the process is a bit different; the recyclable material is first shredded, such as in the processing of natural fibers. But then, the process differs because the shredded material is further granulated into synthetic chips. Following, the material is depolymerized and then again polymerized to create new fibers ready for new fabrics.
One of the biggest problems in the circular economy is the increasing quantity of fashion waste because of the ever-expanding consumption economy. Hence, innovations in textile recycling are of such importance because these innovations can help diminish this rising pressure on the circular economy.
Because most textile recyclers to date can only recycle and recover one or at most two materials from a recyclable item, most innovations are aiming to increase the recovery of the number of different materials per item. Because of the immediate consumption fashion industry, innovations in textile recycling will remain a topic of high interest to achieve a more circular economy in the future.
The textile has been the great forgotten in terms of recycling worldwide. The textile industry has been, until now, outside the ecological regulations, but new…
Read moreInternational technology Group ANDRITZ has received an order from Renaissance Textile to deliver a complete recycling line for their first recycling platform,…
Read moreCarpet Recycling UK (CRUK), which will be exhibiting at The Flooring Show 2021 in September, says it is seeing emerging trends in the repurposing of carpet and…
Read moreSTADLER and TOMRA delivered the fully automated sorting plant for Sysav Industri AB, which sorts pre- and post-consumer mixed textile waste in southern Skåne,…
Read moreGet the extensive coverage for recycling professionals who buy, maintain, manage or operate equipement, delivered to your inbox (it’s free!).
By signing up for our list, you agree to our Terms & Conditions. We deliver two E-Newsletters every week, the Weekly E-Update (delivered every Tuesday) with general updates from the industry, and one Market Focus / E-Product Newsletter (delivered every Thursday) that is focused on a particular market or technology.
RecyclingInside is the leading global business resource and website for recycling technology and recycling innovations.
© RecyclingInside 2022