Recycling in Textile

Textile industry is one of the most important industries. This industry has also become one of the most polluting industries due to its environmentally harmful production and distribution systems.

There is a growing trend for recycling textiles linked to individual awareness in favor of ecology and the environment.

Textile recycling is the name given to the process by which old clothing and other textile products are recycled for reuse or material recovery. Textiles are at the core of the recycling industry.

We can explain the steps in the recycling process of textile waste as follows; donating, collecting, sorting and processing textiles and then transferring used clothing, textile waste or other recovered materials to end users.

The basis of the growing textile recycling industry is, of course, the textile industry itself. The textile industry does not only consist of clothing. It also consists of furniture and bedding, linens, cleaning supplies, curtains, entertainment equipment, and many other items, and is an almost $1 trillion industry worldwide.

We have listed the environmental benefits of textile recycling below:

Pollution is prevented.

Energy and water consumption is reduced.

It reduces landfill requirements, remembering that synthetic fiber products do not decompose and natural fibers can emit greenhouse gases.

The use of virgin fibers is avoided.

Demand for dyes is reduced.

The production of textiles for recycling is carried out from two main sources. These resources are as follows:

Post consumer:

Clothing, vehicle upholstery, household items and so on

Pre consumer:

Textile waste from yarn and fabric manufacturing and other products

At the design and production stage, pre-consumer textile waste is generated before the garment reaches the consumer. For example, there may be textile waste produced in garment factories, but considered not useful enough (deemed small) and thrown away. Pre-consumer textile waste also includes end-of-season stocks that cannot be sold due to overproduction, as well as garments with minor defects that are discarded because they cannot be sold.

Post-consumer textile waste is the waste generated after the consumer no longer wears a garment and throws it away. This type of textile waste arises due to the increasing need for consumption and our new disposable fashion culture that encourages us to buy, wear new clothes and follow the next trend.

The Importance of Textile Recycling

The advantages of textile recycling are: reducing the accumulation of textile waste, greatly reducing pollution, reducing complex industrial processes, budget savings and new products. Likewise, we can add to its benefits the reduction of raw materials, energy saving, employment, reuse, promotion of environmental awareness, circular economy, sustainable development, conservation of natural resources and a better quality of life.

How to Recycle Clothes?

More than 100 billion pieces of clothing are sold worldwide each year.

This is a full 60% more than 15 years ago! However, from production to washing to end of life, our clothes have a heavy environmental impact. In fact, did you know that the textile industry is one of the most polluting sectors?

Let’s take a look at how pollution occurs in textiles;

Pollution occurs when obtaining the raw materials to be used to create clothes. For example, it is very important to pay attention to very high water consumption or pesticide use in cotton fields.

Our environment is polluted due to toxic products used in textiles and then mixed into nature and polluting it.

Considering all this, it is very important to ensure the recycling cycle of fabric waste.

There are two types of recycling in textiles: mechanical and chemical.

1- Mechanical recycling means manually shredding textiles and separating them into fibers. From there, the fibers are strengthened by combining them with another type of fiber.

2- Chemical recycling is the use of chemical solvents to dissolve the fibers found in textile waste. Thus, it can be extracted, recycled and made into a new fabric.

With mechanical recycling, inputs can also include materials from outside the textile industry. For example, most of the recycled polyester used by famous textile brands comes from recycled PET bottles rather than polyester clothing.

Textile Recycling Process

Recycling fabric or textile waste is the process carried out for the reuse of clothing, fibers or clothing residues used in its manufacture. The purpose of recycling in textiles is to reduce pollution, protect the environment and human health, and process textile waste for the reuse of discarded clothing or other resources that allow it to be reprocessed into newly produced fabrics.

Clothing fabrics are generally made from cotton, a degradable material, and synthetic plastic, the textile composition affects durability and recycling method.

Clothes are sorted by color, which prevents them from being dyed again, meaning savings on energy and pollutants.

Fabrics are shredded into fibers or blended with other selected fibers, depending on the end use of the piece. The mixture is combed clean and the fibers are mixed and ready to be spun or woven. The fibers can also be compressed for mattress production.

Another option for using recycled textiles is as part of insulation material for vehicles, as ceiling batts, wall coverings and furniture padding.

For garments that are polyester only, the process is different, the first thing done is to remove buttons and zippers, the garments are cut into small pieces, these are granulated and then small pellets are formed. The pellets polymerize into small pieces of polyester that are melted and spun into a new fiber used to make new polyester fabrics.

The main stages generally followed in the processing of textile waste are as follows:

Manual classification and separation of raw material types

Perform defibration or crushing to convert new fibers

Carding, where the resulting fibers are sent for cleaning and mixing

Spinning of the material for subsequent weaving operations

Fabric Recycling

Why is it important to talk about textile recycling or recycled fabrics? We are going through a process where it is necessary to stop and rethink the way fashion is produced and consumed. One way to do this is to seriously consider recycling, whether clothes or fabrics, as a possible solution to reduce the tons of textile waste produced by the fashion industry.

The textile industry is the second most polluting industry on the planet, it is crucial to be aware of this to understand the importance of regenerated fabric. Linens, clothing or used shoes are items that are often thrown away rather than reused or recycled. The textile world slowly started to find solutions regarding this issue. Many regulations regarding this issue have emerged around the world. To give an example from France, since 2007 French regulations mention that “waste from professional clothing products must contribute to the recycling and purification”.

The biggest problem in the fashion industry comes from textile waste. Millions of tonnes of textile waste are thrown into landfill every year as a result of discarding clothing and manufacturing scraps from the fast fashion industry. Many of these discarded fabrics are neither organic nor natural, so they can take thousands of years to decompose before returning to earth, releasing hundreds of thousands of microplastic particles in the process that pollute the entire planet. One way to help reduce the impact of textile waste on the planet is to purchase clothing made from recycled textiles.