Science For All

Science for All: A 15-minute reaction offers a way around fast fashion’s textile waste

A young woman is browsing a rail of clothes at a street market | Photo Credit: lolostock

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The textile industry generates a tremendous amount of waste. Its fast fashion sector in particular needs to respond to fleeting trends as quickly as possible and uses a mix of textiles, complicating recycling. But now, researchers at the University of Delaware and the Centre of Plastics Innovation may have found a way around it.

According to a study published in the Science Advances journal on July 3, a quick chemical reaction can break down tough materials like polymers and spandex, raising hopes for the waste problem plaguing the textile industry.

In the study, researchers subjected four textiles – white 100% polyester textile, white 100% cotton textile, and white 50/50 blend of polyester and cotton T-shirt (or 50/50 polycotton) – to glycolysis, a reaction that breaks down glucose in the presence of a catalyst, using heat. According to the team, zinc oxide is a good catalyst because it is robust, affordable, highly active, and easily recyclable.

The glycolysis of polyester had a 90% yield of bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate, or BHET, which can be recycled to create more textile products. Cotton didn’t glycolyse, on the other hand, which is good because this it can be recovered and recycled.

In addition, they found the BHET yield to be highest for undyed (i.e. white) polyester textiles and lower for dyed textiles. In particular, UV and fire-resistant finishes negatively affected glycolysis. 

The researchers also optimised the reaction’s conditions such that, provided enough heat and catalysis, near all the polyester could be  glycolysed to BHET achieved in under 15 minutes.

Less than 0.5% of post-consumer textile waste is recycled worldwide, the study noted. Most of it is either incinerated or buried in landfills. (Mixed fibres also complicate mechanical recycling.) The study provides a potentially highly sought way forward to mitigate the textile industry’s contribution to environmental degradation.

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