Tandem development of waste textile recycling process and chemical screening for a non-toxic Re:Start

Re:start  aims to establish a tandem method combining  sustainable processes and online  chemical analysis to enhance the sustainability and safety related to recycling of waste textiles.

The focus will be on reclaiming PET, acrylics, nanocellulose and its hybrids from textile waste for subsequent conversion to monomers, chemicals or new materials for recirculation.

This will  yield positive benefits as i) reduced need for virgin resources in industrial process ii)  decreased  materials that will be phased out and end up in incineration or landfill and iii) safe and toxic free products. However, the circulation should not come at the cost of quality, human health, or ecosystem.

The project will  therefore develop fast and non-invasive analysis methods to detect possibly harmful chemicals before and during recycling processes.

Furthermore, our approach to partially fractionate the textiles to suitable hybrids without separating them completely into the component chemical fractions  is expected to be more toxic free and resource efficient than chemical routes used today.

New thermomechanical recycling processes  will contribute significantly to green recycling and also put Sweden as forerunners of sustainable textile recycling and recovery of valuable resources.The developed  tandem method  is expectd to enable the emergence of a resource-efficient industries, chemical-smart society and  new start ups focusing on  toxic free and sustainable products from recycling.