Textile recycling

Textile recycling methods

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.

Mechanical processing

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 broken down into smaller pieces through mechanical means, such as shredding, grinding, or cutting. 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. This process is relatively simple and low-cost, and it can be used to recycle a wide range of textile materials, including natural and synthetic fibers. 

Chemical processing

Chemical processing breaks down and reforms synthetic fibers such as PET, nylon, and polyester into their chemical components through the use of chemicals such as solvents or enzymes. This process can be a more efficient and sustainable alternative to traditional mechanical recycling methods, as it allows for the recycling of a wider range of textiles and can result in higher-quality recycled materials. 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.

Textile recycling process

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. Next, the textiles are shredded or ground into smaller pieces, which can be used as raw material for new textile products. The shredded textiles may then be cleaned, carded, and spun into yarns, or they may be blended with other fibers to create new fabrics. The resulting recycled materials may be used in a variety of applications, such as insulation, padding, or even new clothing and textiles.

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. Next, the textiles are processed with the use of chemicals, such as solvents, enzymes or acids, to break down the fibers into their individual chemical components. The resulting chemical components can then be used to create new textile products. The recycled materials obtained through chemical textile recycling can be of higher quality than those obtained through mechanical recycling.

Innovations in textile recycling

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.