Environmental Prospects for Mixed Textile Recycling in Sweden

• The production of cotton and other fibers causes excessive resource use and environmental impacts, and the deployment of these fibers in “fast fashion” is creating large masses of textile waste. Therefore, various industrial researchers are attempting to develop systems to recycle cellulosic materials. This is a challenging undertaking because of the need to handle mixed waste streams. Alkaline hydrolysis has been suggested as a useful textile recycling process, but its sustainability credentials have not been fully examined via life cycle assessment. The aim of this article is to provide such an examination and to guide process developers by scaling up results from recent laboratory work to a small-scale industrial facility. The results indicate that the recycling process is promising from an environmental point of view. The key issue controlling the relative environmental performance of the recycling system in comparison to a single-use benchmark is how the process for converting recovered cotton into a cellulosic fiber is performed. A fully integrated viscose production system or a system that makes one of the newer cellulosic fibers (e.g., lyocell) from the recovered cotton will improve the performance of the recycling system relative to its alternatives.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Kemiteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Chemical Engineering (hsv//eng)

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Annan lantbruksvetenskap -- Förnyelsebar bioenergi (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Other Agricultural Sciences -- Renewable Bioenergy Research (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Naturresursteknik -- Annan naturresursteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Environmental Engineering -- Other Environmental Engineering (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Naturresursteknik -- Miljöledning (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Environmental Engineering -- Environmental Management (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Life cycle assessment

LCA

Polycotton

Polyester

Cotton

Viscose

Lyocell

Chemical recycling

Fiber recycling

Fibre recycling

Alkaline hydrolysis

Textile recycling

Sustainability

Carbon footprint

Water footprint

Toxicity

Acidification

Eutrophication

Process development

Livscykelanalys

LCA

Polyester

Bomull

Viskos

Lyocell

Kemisk återvinning

Fiberåtervinning

Textilåtervinning

Hållbarhet

Hållbarhetsanalys

Klimatpåverkan

Vattenbrist

Toxicitet

Försurning

Övergödning

Processutveckling

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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