researchers have developed a chemical processing technique that can break down fabrics into reusable molecules, even if they contain a mixture of materials.

The process described in a science advances from July 3 shows that chemical recycling old textiles can breathe new life into. If this is enlarged, it could help to manage the rising mountain in waste generated by the fashion industry, says study mitar Dionisios Vlachos, an engineer at the University of Delaware in Newark.

estimates indicate that less than 1% of the textiles are recycled, and almost three quarters of the used clothing are burned or burned on landfills. "A good third or more of the microplastics that land in the ocean come from clothing," says Vlachos. "Our ability to develop technology to cope with all these waste and to remove them from the environment, landfills and oceans is very important."

Miriam Ribul, which researches sustainable materials on the UKRI Textiles Circularity Center, says that although recycling should be seen as the last remedy after old clothing was repaired and reused, the industry "would welcome investments in these new procedures and technologies for scaling".

difficult textiles

A lot of recycling contains the physical separation of waste into raw materials, but this approach has weaknesses in the processing of textiles. Many fabrics consist of a mixture of materials, for example cotton mixed with synthetic fibers such as polyester. Mechanical recycling techniques have difficulty separating multi -fiber textiles into products that can be used again. "The quality of what you get is reduced," says Vlachos.

Instead,

The researchers turned to chemical recycling in order to dismantle some synthetic components of tissues into reusable components. They used a chemical reaction called microwave -assisted glycolyzing, which can use heat and a catalyst of large molecular chains - polymers - into smaller units. You used this to process fabrics with various compositions, including 100% polyester and 50/50 poly cotton, which consists of polyester and cotton.

For pure polyester substances, the reaction converted 90% of the polyester into a molecule called Bhet, which can be recycled directly in order to produce more polyester substances. The researchers found that the reaction did not affect the cotton, so that it was possible with polyester cotton fabrics to disassemble both the polyester and to regain the cotton. It was crucial that the team was able to optimize the reaction conditions so that the process only lasted 15 minutes and was therefore extremely inexpensive. "Typically, these things take days to reduce them. So to reduce from days to a few minutes, I think this is an important renewal," says Vlachos. Finally he says: "I think we can actually go in seconds".

expansion

The study also examined how other material combinations react to the reaction process. The results were good, even if unknown shares of fibers such as cotton, polyester, nylon or spandex were contained in the textiles. Spandex fell into a useful molecule called MDA, and nylon, such as cotton, could be extracted intact. However, some polyester substances produced reduced amounts of BHET, including colored substances and those treated to resist UV light or fire. The team suggests that further research is necessary to optimize the conditions for such materials.

In an analysis as part of her study, Vlachos and his colleagues estimated that 88% of clothing could be recycled worldwide with further development.

"We have a simple process that we can scale to treat large amounts of clothing," says Vlachos. "We are very optimistic that this can actually be implemented into reality."