This was one of the key takeaways from a full and lively seminar, Textiles and Nonwovens, A Sustainable Future, held during INDEX™23 in Geneva.

Moderator Gil Stevens, EDANA’s External Relations and Sustainability Director, explained that the European Commission’s Strategy for Textiles is calling for all textile products on the EU market to be durable, repairable, and recyclable – and largely made of recycled fibres – by 2030.

“About 5.8 million tons of textiles are discarded every year in the EU – approximately 11kg per person – and clothing accounts for 81% of it,” he said.

Value retention

Today only between 30-35% of the annual total textile waste generated in Europe is collected separately and very little of that is returned to fibre form to enable true value retention.

By 2030 the aim is that up to 80% of the total waste will be recycled in some way and that the share of fibre-to-fibre recycling will grow to around 2.5 millions tons.

The rapid progress of new companies, based largely in Scandinavia, who are involved in ventures to turn waste clothing back into pulps from which spinnable new fibres can be produced has captured the attention of many major apparel brands. However, there will not be anywhere near enough fibre capacity available from these new companies by 2030 to meet the EU’s targets for the fibre-to-fibre recycling of waste clothing.

Options

Mark Croes, consultant for the hygiene and medical sectors at Centexbel, provided an overview of available recycling options – mechanical, thermal or biochemical – and their varying levels of industrial readiness. His presentation was based on a Centexbel study commissioned by the European Commission that can be accessed here.

While businesses pursue the holy grail of closed-loop recycling, the Centexbel study emphasises that established open-loop systems already successfully process textiles into usable products and a combination of reuse and closed and open-loop solutions is required.

Many nonwovens are already based on long-established open-loop mechanical recycling processes, currently largely from industrial waste by-products, but with the potential to be made from post-consumer waste too.

For the automotive industry for example, recycled fibres are employed to make insulating webs for sound and heat insulation, hard-pressed parts for floors, doors and seat linings, luggage compartment and boot linings and some filter media.

In the furniture industry, recycled fibre applications include mattress covers and webs, seating padding, wallcoverings and wiping cloths, in addition to carpet backing and underlay.

There are also extensive applications in building and construction for recycled fibres, in a range of insulation products and as filling materials.

Content

It was observed at the INDEX™23 seminar that many of these products are often considered ‘second life’ materials and their manufacture has been somewhat demeaned by being termed ‘downgrading’, by champions of a fully circular economy.

In reality, effectively doubling the life of any product that can’t enter a fully circular system will be extremely useful in attempting to meet the near-term goals of the EU’s Textiles Strategy.

“The nonwovens industry should be proud of the applications for recycled fibres it has already developed,” said Andritz Nonwovens General Manager Alexandre Butte. “Even with the latest fibre-to-fibre chemical recycling methods being commercialised, only 30-40% content can be incorporated into yarns for conventional spinning and we are already achieving 100% in many high-value products.”