It took ten years to develop commercial scale textile-to-textile chemical recycling pulp mill that the Swedish pulp producer Renewcell has just commissioned.
The practice of mechanical textiles-to-textiles recycling, has been in vogue since centuries in which the clothes were manually shredded and pulled apart into their fibres. The first commercial operation was started by Renewcell using chemical recycling that increased quality and scale.
Experts in the textile industry say the current model of fashion is unsustainable. It is not prudent to consume virgin materials every time a garment is produced. It is a heavy burden on our natural resources that requires pumping oil, cutting trees to produce polyester or pulp. Or even to grow cotton. It taxes the environment. The used clothing is dumped on earth. We need to recycle the used materials to reproduce fibers for producing garments.
Each year, more than 100 billion items of clothing are produced globally, according to some estimates, with 65 percent of these ending up in landfill within 12 months. Landfill sites release equal parts carbon dioxide and methane – the latter greenhouse gas being 28 times more potent than the former over a 100-year period. The fashion industry is estimated to be responsible for 8-10 of percent global carbon emissions, according to the UN.
Current recycle capacities are very small as just 1 percent of recycled clothes are converted into garments. Fashion brands have introduced many schemes to take back used clothes. The clothes thus collected are either donated to some charity or the reuse them by converting them to dusters for cleaning purposes or recycled as carpet underlay or as filings in mattresses. Recycling them in to clothing is usually not a consideration at most of the used cloth collection centers.
Experts say that the composition of garments makes it technically difficult to recycle them. Majority are made from blended materials in which the polyesters account for around 54 percent recycled in all countries and convert it to polyester fiber. But when two different fibers are present it is difficult to recycle one fiber without destroying the other.
At the Renewcell mill the feedstock is 100 percent textile waste dominated by T-shirts and jeans are converted into biodegradable cellulose pulp which they name Circulose. The buttons, zips and coloring are removed from the textile waste first after shredding. They the remaining material is subjected to mechanical and chemical processing that gently separate the tightly tangled cotton fibres from each other.The rest of the material is pure cellulose.
This material is dried which can be dissolved by viscose manufacturers to produce a new viscose fabric. Man Made cellulosic fibre (MMCF) or viscose is lightweight, silk-like quality. Currently the share of MMCFs is 6 percent of the total fibre production. Majority of viscose comes from wood pulp. Experts say Renewcell’s technology will keep forests intact, it pulp production is also higher. Even most of the waste cotton is also turned in the Renewcel mill into pulp.
The limitation of Renewcell technology is that it can only recycle clothes that are made of cotton, with an allowance of up to just 5 percent non-cotton content. It is difficult to separate polyester, too much of which affects product quality. Renewcell officials said polyester is used only because it is cheap. With recycling plants like it has installed the use of cheaper and environmentally more injurious materials would reduce.
Renewcell textile to textile recycling a ray of hope for sustainable textiles
