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A polyester-dissolving process could make modern clothing recyclable


The new technique can help break mixed-fiber clothing back down into feedstock for future textiles.

A team of researchers hopes to change that with a new process that breaks down mixed-fiber clothing into reusable, recyclable parts without any sorting or separation in advance. “We need a better way to recycle modern garments that are complex, because we are never going to stop buying clothes,” says Erha Andini, a chemical engineer at the University of Delaware and lead author of a study on the process, which is out today in Science Advances. To tackle this problem, Andini and her team used a solvent that breaks the chemical bonds in polyester fabric while leaving cotton and nylon intact.

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Blamed for fouling the environment, polyester may help save it. A team from Cornell has created a way to break down old polyester clothing & reuse some of its compounds to make fabrics that are fire resistant, anti-bacterial or wrinkle-free – & halt the proliferation of garment waste in landfills.