Sourcing and Re-Sourcing End-of-Use Textiles

Abstract

The consumption of textiles is tremendously increasing. As fibers are mostly used in textiles, fiber production values mirror this development by a sharp rise in recent decades, exceeding 100 million tonnes in 2018. This triggers ecological challenges, e.g., the entire textile processing chain is a major consumer of energy and resources, and generates significant volumes of wastes and greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, a huge fraction still ends up in waste incineration, landfills, or dumps and only recently, textile waste has entered focus of legislation. One solution addressing the issue can be found in proper post-use-phase treatment. Recycling is a core strategy in helping feed materials back into production cycles and mitigate the depletion of primary resources. Concurrently, it minimizes the wastes’ impacts themselves if else insufficiently treated. This is particularly true for textile waste as a potential source of persistent micro-fibers. However, the topic is complex by being tangent to social or ethical aspects and requiring a wide range of measures from re-use to various recycling technologies and incineration as the last consequence. This article presents current mechanical, physical, chemical, and thermal processing techniques dependent upon varying material compositions and illustrates advancements in the field with an eye on feasibility limits.