The Project’s overall aim is to investigate economically viable and scalable solutions for cellulosic chemical recycling to enable a closed-loop system converting textile waste – of cotton and cotton-blend materials, to produce new man-made cellulosic fibers.
To read the full project report see fashionforgood.com/chemical-recycling.
Man-made cellulosic fibers (MMCF) such as Viscose/Rayon, Lyocell, Modal and Cupro, are most commonly derived from wood and have the third-largest share in global fiber production after polyester and cotton. Man-made cellulosic fibers are of increasing importance; production of MMFCs has doubled in the last 30 years and is forecast for continued growth over the coming years.
“A bold approach is needed to identify and scale innovations that drive sustainable change in the fashion industry. This multi-stakeholder consortium, a first-of-its-kind, addresses the most important barriers to scaling innovation, setting the precedent for all industry players with ambitions for disruptive innovation to follow.” – Katrin Ley, Managing Director, Fashion for Good
Over an 18-month period, project partners will collaborate with innovators, Evrnu, Infinited Fiber Company, Phoenxt, Renewcell, and Tyton BioSciences, to validate the potential of their technologies in this still nascent market. The recycled content produced by four of these innovators will be converted at Birla Cellulose’s state of the art pilot plants to produce high-quality cellulosic fibers. From there, fibers will move through the project partners supply chains to be manufactured into garments. Given that Infinited Fiber Company produces industry-ready fibre through their process, their fibre will be delivered directly to the project partner’s supply chains for garment production. The Project will provide an assessment of the innovator’s environmental impact, technologies, recycled output, and subsequent garments. These results along with the Project key learnings should determine how best to support and scale these promising solutions.
“The need of the hour is to co-create sustainable solutions for the fashion industry that can be scaled rapidly and economically.” – Mr. Dilip Gaur, Business Director, Birla Cellulose, Aditya Birla Group
Textile recycling is a key focus for Fashion for Good as a crucial lever in driving the fashion industry towards closed-loop production. A systemic change towards circularity will ultimately reduce the environmental impact of textile waste and potentially eliminate our dependence on virgin materials entirely. Furthermore, producing man-made cellulosic fibers through chemical recycling can help preserve ancient and endangered forests. Scalable solutions in high-quality textile recycling technologies are therefore urgently needed.
“Next generation solutions are the path to meeting the climate and biodiversity targets that scientists are calling for by 2030. We’ve seen promising momentum in recent years as we’ve worked with brands, producers, and innovators to build strong market demand and Identified a great pipeline of game-changing technologies. Now we need investment and broad industry adoption to make these Next Gen Solutions a commercially available reality.” – Nicole Rycroft Founder and Executive Director, Canopy
Circularity in textile-to-textile recycling presents the fashion industry with a complex challenge based on the technology available today. While mechanical recycling is technically feasible, there are significant drawbacks; high purity feedstock, such as cotton, is required to produce output of sufficient quality, and recovered fibers are of inferior strength when compared with the virgin equivalent. Chemical recycling is able to address these shortcomings; however, the technology has a number of barriers to overcome including a lack of financing, relatively small-scale output and limited offtake commitment from brands.