Discover the three primary textile-to-textile recycling methods and how fabric composition, colour and additives impact these processes. Learn of their tolerances for contamination and the implications on resulting textile products.

There are three main ways to recycle textiles.

Mechanical: where fabric is chopped up into fine pieces. This process isn’t used widely for textile-to-textile (T2T) because the fibres become too short to be respun into new yarns. The most recycled content you would get in a fabric using this method is 30%. And even then, the yarns would be significantly weaker than a yarn made of virgin material. Instead, it is used for apparel, home and automotive insulations.

Thermo-mechanical: used for T2T recycling of synthetics. The fabric is chopped up, then melted down before being extruded into new fibres. It is possible to have a 100% recycled fabric using this method, but most are 50-70% to balance the performance against environmental and economic benefits. This is because the recycled content would still be weaker than virgin. Recycled synthetics are also deemed to shed more microplastics during laundering.

Chemical recycling: the widest application of T2T recycling. Whilst it’s compatible with most synthetics and cotton, it is not suitable for all natural cellulose fibres due to the harsh chemical breakdown that occurs. This process takes the fibres back to their building blocks and strips out contaminants, such as dyes and finishes.