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Mixed Material Textile Recycling Breakthrough!

A new process has been discovered that could revolutionize the way textiles (clothing, bed linens, curtains, seatbelts, upholstery, etc.) are recycled. Currently less than 0.5% of postconsumer textile waste is recycled globally. That means any textiles thrown away are incinerated or end up in landfills. That is because most postconsumer textiles are mixed fibers, unable to be mechanically recycled due to material blends and contaminants. The new process published by engineering researchers last month (July 2024) is a chemical conversion of the textiles into their base materials. This process works by rapidly depolymerizing polyester and spandex into their monomers in just 15 minutes! This is followed by a simple solvent to separate cotton and nylon. By removing the oil derived materials (polyester/spandex/nylon) from the plant-based materials (cotton), the textiles can be “decontaminated” and recycled into new materials. This discovery is a huge breakthrough in the world of recycling!

Source:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ado6827

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