Recycling Processes in Sustainable Textile Manufacturing
Summary
Recycling processes in sustainable textile manufacturing encompass a spectrum of mechanical and chemical techniques designed to recover value from post-consumer and post-industrial textile waste. Mechanical recycling involves shredding, carding and re-spinning fibres from discarded garments and fabrics, while chemical recycling employs depolymerisation or solvent treatments to break down polymers into monomers or oligomers for re-polymerisation. These pathways contribute to a circular economy by reducing reliance on virgin resources, minimising energy consumption and lowering greenhouse-gas emissions. Innovations in pre-treatment methods, such as lubricant application, enhance fibre integrity and promote higher yarn tenacity. Concurrently, advances in mechanical processes—ranging from open-end to ring-spinning systems—improve the quality and consistency of recycled yarns. Emerging hybrid approaches integrate biological and enzymatic treatments to facilitate selective fibre separation and dye removal. Together, these developments support scalable industrial adoption, enabling the production of durable, high-performance textiles with substantially reduced environmental footprints.
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Recycling Processes in Sustainable Textile Manufacturing publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in recycling processes in sustainable textile manufacturing across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Mechanical recycling: A process that mechanically tears, cardes and re-spins textile waste into new fibrous material without altering polymer chemistry.
Chemical recycling: A treatment that depolymerises fibres into monomers or oligomers for subsequent purification and re-polymerisation into fresh textile polymers.
Ring-spun yarn: A yarn produced by drawing out and twisting fibres on a ring-spinning frame, yielding high strength and uniformity.
Open-end spinning: A rotor-based method of yarn production where fibres are continuously fed into a rotating rotor to form yarn, offering high throughput.
Fibre length distribution: A measure of the range and frequency of fibre lengths within a batch, affecting yarn tenacity and fabric evenness.
References
- Transforming mechanically recycled cotton and linen from post-consumer textiles into quality ring yarns and knitted fabrics. Waste Management Bulletin (2025).
- Improving Mechanical Textile Recycling by Lubricant Pre-Treatment to Mitigate Length Loss of Fibers. Sustainability (2020).
- Investigation of tensile strength and elongation properties of chenille upholstery fabrics including recycling polyester yarns. Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics (2020).
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