Recycling in the textile sector

The linear "produce, consume, throw away" model has reached its limits, and our economies are increasingly dependent on non-renewable resources.

The price of materials is rising, a break with the trend of past decades. To meet growing demand, we need to exploit new resources from recycling. The circular economy aims to promote less costly consumption and production methods. Textile recycling is at the heart of environmental issues, and should contribute to saving natural resources: one man's waste becomes another man's new resource.

Textile recycling involves a wide range of technologies that can be divided into three categories: chemical recycling, mechanical recycling and physical recycling. Used textiles can be used to manufacture new textiles (closed-loop recycling), as well as non-textile products such as plastics (open-loop recycling).

The challenges to be met are not only technical, but above all structural and organizational. This calls for the establishment of appropriate channels, with the aim of increasing the volume of waste, optimizing sorting and dismantling, and facilitating the supply of textile and non-textile sectors capable of absorbing the textile materials to be recycled.

Finally, the success of textile recycling depends on the development of technologies that integrate the economic viability of the sector.

This article will give you a better understanding of textile recycling, identifying the obstacles and difficulties that can be encountered, and looking ahead to a new future using secondary materials.