The science behind the recycling revolution
Researchers have developed an innovative chemical-processing technique capable of breaking down fabrics into reusable molecules. This advancement is part of a broader effort to tackle the growing environmental concerns related to textile waste. The process typically involves using specific chemicals or enzymes that can break the long polymer chains in fabrics—such as polyester, cotton, and other common textiles which can take many years to decompose —into their fundamental building blocks. These molecules can then be purified and repurposed to create new materials, thus enabling a closed-loop recycling system.
Chemical Recycling – Here’s how the process works:
Depolymerisation: The technique often begins with a depolymerisation step, where the fabric’s polymer chains are broken down into monomers or other small molecules. For example, in the case of polyester, this might involve breaking down the polyester into its original monomers, such as terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol.
Purification: After the depolymerisation, the resulting molecules are typically purified to remove any contaminants or unwanted by-products. This ensures that the recycled material is of high enough quality to be used in new products.
Repurposing: The purified molecules can then be re-polymerised or used as raw materials for producing new fabrics or other products, effectively creating a circular economy where old textiles are continuously recycled into new ones.
Impact and potential: This technique is significant because traditional textile recycling methods often degrade the quality of the material, limiting its reuse. By breaking down fabrics into their molecular components, this method allows for the creation of high-quality recycled products, reducing the need for virgin materials and minimising textile waste. If scaled up, this technology could play a crucial role in addressing the environmental impact of the fashion industry, which is a major contributor to global waste and pollution.
Such innovations align with the increasing demand for sustainable practices in manufacturing and could help mitigate the environmental footprint of textiles, especially as global consumption of clothing continues to rise.
This innovative process, outlined in a Science Advances paper on 3 July, shows that chemical recycling can give old textiles a new lease of life. It could help to tackle the growing mountain of waste generated by the fashion industry, says study co-author Dionisios Vlachos, an engineer at the University of Delaware in Newark.
Estimates suggest than less than 1% of textiles are recycled, and nearly 75% of used garments end up incinerated or dumped into landfill. “A good third or more of the microplastics that end up in the ocean” come from clothing, says Vlachos. “Our ability to develop technology to be able to handle all this waste and remove them from the environment, landfills and the oceans is very important.”
Miriam Ribul, who researches sustainable materials at the UKRI Textiles Circularity Centre, says that although recycling should be regarded as a last resort after repairing and reusing old clothes, the industry would welcome “investment in these new processes and technologies to be able to scale up”.
