Scientific Discovery That Could Change the Future of Textile Waste

How often do you buy new clothes? What do you do with your old clothes? A lot of us tend to just throw away our old clothes or donate them if they’re in decent condition. It won’t be a surprise for you to know that the fashion industry is huge, especially in the United States with a net worth of almost $500 billion.  

 

What this means is that there is a lot of waste generated by the industry. To help our environment and our future generations, it’s important to reduce textile waste. A new scientific discovery might actually help us do that.  

  

Why Is It Important to Reduce Textile Waste? 

Before we get to the discovery, you need to know the extent of textile waste in the United States. The following is a list of some textile waste found in municipal solid waste, abbreviated as MSW: 

  • Discarded clothing 

  • Comprises most of the waste found in MSW. 

  • Furniture 

  • Carpet 

  • Tires 

  • Sheets  

  • Towels  

  

In 2018, 17,030 tons of textiles were generated. Though a few thousand tons have been recycled or combusted with energy recovery, most of the textiles generated have been landfilled. To be specific, 11,300 tons of textiles generated have been landfilled.  

  

The amount of textile landfilled in 2022 can only be expected to be more than 2018’s statistics. This is exactly why textile waste is not something small that we can ignore.  

  

Blended Fabrics   

Different fabrics are commonly blended to make one fabric for different reasons such as: 

  • Improve the feeling of the fabric 

  • Increase durability  

  • Increase Performance  

  

If you grab apparel from your closet, maybe a shirt, you’ll find that it might be made up of more than 1 fabric. Blended fabrics are more common than you might know.  

  

The Scientific Discovery to Reduce Textile Waste 

  

Researchers at North Carolina State University have discovered a way to separate blended fabrics into their components, specifically cotton-polyester blends. The issue with blended fabrics is that they’re harder to recycle than their components by themselves.  

  

Though cotton is biodegradable, it would take months. On the other hand, polyester would not degrade, but it can be recycled, which aids in reducing the textile waste produced by polyester.  

  

The way the separation of the fabrics works is quite simple. A blend of enzymes in an acidic and hot environment is used to break down the cellulose, which is what cotton is made of, in the blended fabrics. The remaining cotton fragments and glucose are washed away to leave polyester by itself.  

  

The products of this process can be reused/recycled. While the polyester itself is recycled, the slurry of cotton fragments can be used in the manufacture of paper or for composites. Additionally, the researchers are working on a project to convert glucose into biofuel.  

  

If this process is fine-tuned to be conducted on a large scale, we can reduce textile waste! 

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