Almost 100 billion items of clothing are produced every year. 65% of them end up in the trash within a year. But there is an alternative. New recycling technologies are creating sustainable materials.
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00:00Roughly 10% of all global carbon emissions stem from the textile industry.
00:06It's also incredibly resource intensive, guzzling up some 90 billion cubic metres of water annually.
00:13That's 4% of global freshwater usage.
00:16And more than water goes into producing our clothes.
00:19Almost always these materials go through heavy chemical processes to make them the way they are today.
00:27Whether it's finishing, whether it's dyeing.
00:30Priyanka Khanna collaborates with brands and producers to foster sustainable innovation in fashion.
00:36Which is why it is mostly, even the natural materials aren't really biodegradable.
00:42And it takes sometimes over 200 years for these materials to biodegrade in the industry.
00:48And that's a big problem because we produce a lot of textile waste.
00:53In the US, textile waste has grown 80% since the year 2000.
00:58Rachel Kibbe runs Circular Services Group, which supports industry and government in reaching sustainability goals.
01:05It is our fastest growing waste stream.
01:08We send over 30 billion pounds of textiles to landfill every year in the US alone.
01:14Most of our old clothes end up in landfill.
01:17What doesn't is frequently burned.
01:20Unsold stock and donated old clothing are frequently shipped to the global south for resale.
01:26Such as here in Accra, Ghana, where 40% of what arrives is actually considered trash.
01:33The US sends over 600 million kilos of used clothing abroad every year, largely to the rest of the Americas.
01:41While Europe exports over 1.5 billion kilos, much of it to Africa.
01:46Often it is dumped, burned or pollutes oceans and waterways.
01:50Textile waste isn't just old, well-worn clothes.
01:53It also includes excess stock and the scraps generated during production.
01:58Less than 1% of this material is recycled today, which means all of this is going somewhere.
02:05When we collect clothes, they're primarily going to be sorted for reuse.
02:11That's the highest value.
02:13Some of those clothes may be down-cycled into insulation.
02:17Some may be sold as wiper rags.
02:20And then a small portion can be mechanically recycled.
02:24But mechanical recycling has its limitations.
02:28In 2024, mechanical recycling is the best option we have.
02:32Clothes are chopped up and spun into new fibers.
02:36It's way better than landfills, but often involves a drop in quality.
02:40And it's rare that such materials can be recycled again.
02:43But that could soon change.
02:45There are a bunch of exciting new recycling companies boasting new technology
02:50and hoping to tailor a new future for textile waste.
02:54Firstly, there's chemical recycling, where textiles are broken down to the molecular level
02:59and then rebuilt into various materials.
03:02While some companies only recycle cotton, Australia's Blocktex can recycle blended material,
03:08chemically separating synthetic polyester from natural cotton fibers.
03:15Polyester is converted into pellets, which can be used for textiles or as materials in construction.
03:21While cotton cellulose is turned into clay that has uses in textiles, agriculture and even packaging.
03:28The flexibility is intentional.
03:30I would never want to be beholden for my outtakes just to one brand.
03:35Because I know how badly those brands can behave.
03:39Adrian Jones co-founded Blocktex in 2018.
03:43We prefer Blocktex to have outtakes that can be useful to many rather than just be useful to one.
03:49And I think that's been a real difference for us.
03:52In the industry, everybody is preoccupied with making more textiles.
03:57Blocktex recently announced it will expand capacity to 10,000 tons a year.
04:04Refresh Global in Berlin also emphasizes flexibility.
04:08Here, bacteria break down and sanitize textile waste, creating three raw materials.
04:14Nanocellulose, ethanol and sanitized textile pulp.
04:18Through Refresh Global's partners, these materials are used to make anything
04:23ranging from furniture to bike frames to ethanol-based cosmetics.
04:29Refresh Global is a relatively new company and plans to develop a network of smaller facilities
04:36that can be developed quickly and flexibly with partners.
04:39That's quite different to Sweden's Renucell.
04:42One of the world's biggest chemical textile recyclers,
04:45it was among the first to build an industrial-scale textile recycling facility.
04:51Here, cotton textiles are shredded into a slurry, separated from contaminants
04:56and dried into sheets of what they call circulose, circular cellulose,
05:01which can replace virgin materials like cotton, oil or wood
05:05in the production of new, high-quality textiles.
05:08Going down to the molecular level helps maintain quality,
05:12and Renucell says its circulose can be recycled seven times.
05:16There are limits, though. Renucell can only recycle waste that's 95% cotton or purer,
05:22meaning a lot of what goes to landfill isn't eligible.
05:25Renucell's recycling plant opened in 2022,
05:29with capacity to recycle 60,000 tonnes annually and room to expand to 120,000.
05:36But in February 2024 came the shock. The company filed for bankruptcy.
05:41Just days beforehand, Renucell told DW they were recycling far below capacity,
05:47and fashion brands were hesitant to commit to recycled materials.
05:51We could be producing a lot more.
05:53Tricia Carey is the chief commercial officer at Renucell.
05:57Many of the brands have goals set for circularity, carbon reduction, traceability, water goals,
06:08you know, a variety. So we are a solution to their goals.
06:14It's how quickly do they want to be able to achieve those.
06:17Renucell partnered with Levi's to recycle production waste
06:22and include circulose in their products. H&M became a shareholder in 2017,
06:27but still the plant didn't make a profit in its first year.
06:30It has been something that has shocked most of us working on sustainability of textiles.
06:37Teresa Domenech researches sustainability management at London's UCL University.
06:42The existing business models in which most fashion brands are nested,
06:48they don't really help for initiatives like Renucell to really be able to make it.
06:59While recycling cuts reliance on water-hungry cotton and oil-based synthetics, it's more expensive.
07:06It would take some 7 billion euros to scale up recycling to hit 20% of textile waste in Europe by 2030.
07:14There isn't enough push from the legislation side to force the industry to actually adopt these materials.
07:23So not that the industry should require forcing, but if it's going to be more expensive material,
07:29if it's a transition with the thousands of suppliers sitting in Asia,
07:34with all the brands sitting this side and across the world,
07:37it really does is a function of information.
07:41So them having access to everything, which is not easily done until legislation usually takes a role.
07:47The EU has mandated that by 2025, member countries begin collecting textile waste separately,
07:54just like they do with paper, plastic and glass, which should improve on the 22% of waste that's currently separated.
08:01Mirroring proposed legislation in the US,
08:04the EU is also mulling a law requiring producers to pay for the processing of their textile waste.
08:10We have to ensure that these laws don't just charge the producers for one portion of that puzzle, like just collection.
08:22It has to also facilitate the infrastructure for both reuse and recycling and the innovation around that.
08:29Right now, recycling isn't profitable. State actors could also set the tone by adopting targets themselves.
08:37For us to be successful as a recycler, we have to have committed outtakes.
08:42And that's where government and private enterprise has a role to play in saying,
08:48you know, government particularly has very large procurers of products.
08:53Meanwhile, Swedish recycler Renewcel has found a buyer.
08:57The private equity investor Altor has bought up the company's remaining assets.
09:02Altor invests in industries that help to reduce carbon emissions.
09:06Textile recycling is one of them. The company is now to be renamed Circulose, like its fibre.
09:13But despite the progress in textile recycling, there's still more to be done.
09:18Recycling is still only one part of the problem.
09:21Our current consumption patterns cannot continue if you want to move towards the most sustainable industry.
09:31There is a huge amount of overproduction in the industry.
09:35And whoever's responsible for it, there's a lot of debate around that.
09:41Bottom line is that overproduction needs to reduce.
09:45The 100 billion garments we produce each year means 14 for every person in the world.
09:51If we can't convince fashion victims to stop buying their body weight in clothing,
09:55at least we can ensure that as much as possible of what they purchase is recycled.