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What currently happens to the discarded textiles?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
It has been estimated that approximately 20% of discarded textiles are collected and sorted for reuse and\/or recycling, while the remaining 80% are disposed of as waste. The vast majority of these waste textiles, around 70%, are landfilled while the rest are incinerated. This means that waste textiles are not managed in a particularly sustainable manner at the moment, which leads to considerable air, water and soil pollution. For example, the Atacama Desert in Chile has been suffering from increased pollution caused by waste textiles and daunting pictures have been circulating showing the increasing mountains of waste textiles in this ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How can we increase the amount of textiles for recycling?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Similarly to cardboard, plastic or glass waste, discarded textiles need to be collected separately so that the material can be easily reused and\/or recycled. In fact, the EU Waste Framework Directive mandates that EU members must collect their textile waste separately by 2025. Separate collection is the first step in the appropriate management of this waste, opening the possibility to sort the different fiber types and valorize the different materials according to their characteristics. Obviously, this implies an important challenge in terms of logistics, and it could be said that generalized collection and sorting of waste textiles has been (and is) one of the main barriers towards textile recycling at large scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many different research projects are especially focused on the field of recycling of cellulosic materials. Can you describe your process for \u201cthe conversion of cellulose-based textile waste into cellulose pulp\u201d?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Our process is based on a dissolution\/regeneration step that transforms waste textiles into a pure cellulose pulp. The cellulose pulp can be used in the manufacturing of new textile fibers, but its properties can also be modified to adapt the pulp to the requirements of other applications. This creates the possibility to use our cellulose pulp as a raw material that could reduce dependence on virgin materials (increased circularity) and fossil-based feedstocks (increased sustainability) in different industrial sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have also developed an alternative solution to manufacturing new textile fibers for those cases where cellulose cannot be valorized as a polymer: completely depolymerize the fibers to convert them into a sugar solution that can be upgraded to different types of chemicals. This approach is particularly well-suited for textile fibers with short cellulose polymers, that is, low degree of polymerization and it allows us to impose almost no requirements on the starting material in our process. Thanks to this versatility, we can valorize any type of cellulose-based textile fiber, regardless of its properties, by channeling the material to the appropriate valorization strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What products are created?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The cellulose contained in waste textiles can be valorized as a polymer or as sugar in our process, depending on the properties of the starting material, which creates 2 different groups of products. The first group, where cellulose is valorized as a polymer, includes obviously new textile fibers but also other products that exploit the polymeric nature of cellulose such as packaging material or certain cellulose derivatives, such as cellulose acetate. The second group, where cellulose is depolymerized into sugar, consists mainly of different chemicals that can be derived from glucose such as 1,4-butanediol, caprolactam, 5-chloromethylfurfural (CMF) or furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA). Some of these chemicals, such as 1,4-butanediol or caprolactam, can in turned be used as precursors in the production of synthetic fibers, which allows to keep the value of the material within the textile sector even in cases where the cellulose polymer is damaged beyond use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How does the life cycle assessment of these processes compare to cellulosic fibers currently on the market, such as cotton and viscose?
We are currently performing the environmental assessment of our valorization processes, so we do not have any hard data on the subject yet. However, the results are promising given the minimal amount of waste that is generated in the recycling process, the mild conditions required in the processing of the material and the fact that the starting material is derived from a waste stream, which increases both the circularity and the sustainability of the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Will the global fiber market change in the next 10 years? Can you explain your assessment?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
These predictions should always be taken with caution given how uncertain things are nowadays and how fast situations change. With that said, I think there are a few trends that point towards certain directions for the fiber market in the future.
Consumption of regenerated cellulose fibers, such as viscose or lyocell, has been increasing above the overall average of the fiber market. For example, consumption of regenerated cellulose fibers increased 7.5% in 2019 while overall fiber consumption increased only 3.4%. Thus, it could be expected that the share of regenerated cellulose fibers in the fiber market will increase in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is an intense debate around business models in the fashion industry and the need to reduce overall fiber consumption to achieve sustainability in this sector. Common topics that are being discussed are the shift from ownership and customers towards services and users; virtual reality, artificial intelligence and the gamification of fashion; and circular designs to ensure durability and\/or recyclability. These concepts point towards an end in the ever-increasing consumption of textile fibers so we might see a peak followed by a decrease in the global fiber market, even if it feels that we are not on that path yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The interview was conducted by Mechthild Maas, Editor of TextileTechnology, with Miguel Sanchis Sebasti\u00e1, Chief Technology Officer, ShareTex, Stockholm\/Sweden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The textile industry is today one of the largest industrial polluters and accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions. Only 12% of all virgin textile fibers are recycled at present. To ensure a more circular economy and to reduce the environmental impact of the textile value chain we need to implement recycling of textile waste […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Interview with Miguel Sanchis Sebasti\u00e1, ShareTex","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[6162,10416,10453,12468],"supplier":[19944],"class_list":["post-105762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-cellulose","tag-circulareconomy","tag-recycling","tag-textiles","supplier-sharetex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105762"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=105762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}