Textile Recycling Breakthrough Turns Old Clothes Into New Fibre
A chemical recycling process that can separate and recover cotton and polyester blends could transform the fashion industry's waste problem.
Solving the Blend Problem
A breakthrough in textile recycling could solve one of the fashion industry's biggest waste challenges: what to do with blended fabrics. A new chemical process can separate cotton-polyester blends — the most common fabric combination in global clothing — and recover both materials as high-quality fibres suitable for new garments.
Why Blends Are Hard
Mechanical recycling, the dominant method today, struggles with blended fabrics. The process shreds garments, shortening the fibres and producing low-quality output that can only be used for insulation or rags. As a result, less than 1% of clothing is recycled into new clothing.
How the New Process Works
The chemical method dissolves the cotton component while leaving the polyester intact, then recovers both materials separately. The recovered fibres are indistinguishable from virgin materials in quality, meaning the recycled fabric can be used in any garment — closing the loop on textile waste.
Scaling Up
The technology is now being scaled to commercial capacity, with the first industrial recycling plant under construction. If widely deployed, it could dramatically reduce the fashion industry's dependence on virgin materials, which currently consumes vast quantities of water, land, and petroleum.
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