Solution for polycotton textile waste recycling
Residues after processing of pure cotton shirts. Only the polyester labels and seams remain (Image: HIMS/Avantium)
29 January 2025 – the Industrial Sustainable Chemistry group of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) present a solution to the challenging problem of recycling polycotton textile waste. The process, developed in cooperation with the company Avantium, starts with fully removing all cotton from the fabric using superconcentrated hydrochloric acid at room temperature. The cotton is converted into glucose, which can be used as a feedstock for biobased products such as renewable plastics. The remaining polyester fibres can be reprocessed using available polyester recycling methods.
The research was published in Nature Communications, under the title ‘Polycotton waste textile recycling by sequential hydrolysis and glycolysis’.
