Scaling-up biobased textile recycling for sustainable fashion

Project lead

Neil Bruce

Institute

University of York

Summary:

The University of York has pioneered an innovative recycling technology that will enable the manufacture of circular fashion. In the UK, 1 million tons of clothes are discarded every year, but less than 1% are recycled into actual clothes. Consumer concerns and the adoption of new regulations have led retailers and manufacturers to look for truly recycled textile fabrics. Currently, 7 million tons of cellulose are extracted from wood to produce textile fibres: viscose, lyocell and NAIA. The global market size is $7 Bn/year. Our group can transform the viscose or cotton fraction of waste textile into new cellulose that can then be transformed into textile fibres. This constitutes a novel recycling technology as the use of a bio-based process sidesteps limitations encountered when using chemical or mechanical textile recycling. Clothes do not have to be decoloured or shredded and the process is efficient at recycling blended fibres e.g. polycotton or viscose/elastane. We can currently produce 500g cellulose per month, which is enough for spinning trials but not enough to produce yarn. We have engaged with fashion brands that are excited by the potential of our process but need to see a swatch of fabric to commit to the concept. To achieve this and improve our TEA and LCA, we need to scale-up to produce enough cellulose to make fabric and demonstrate the textile to textile concept to our customers.

This project is ongoing and an update on the outcomes and impact will be published on completion.

Academic partners – Neil Bruce and Alexandra Lanot, University of York

Industrial partners – Merryn Chilcott, Bamboo Clothing Ltd and Graham Bonwick, AgrifoodX Limited