Textile recycling is helping create a circular economy
Interchange Recharged
Wood Mackenzie
4.8 • 535 Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2023
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tackling the global textile waste challenge.
The fashion and textile industries are at a pivotal point, urgently needing to incorporate sustainable practices, particularly in textile recycling. With the industry's shift towards synthetic materials like polyester, there's a significant challenge in handling the large quantity of textile waste, estimated at 92 million tons globally every year. Emerging chemical textile recycling technologies, especially those focusing on common polyester-cotton blends, are key to reducing waste and decreasing reliance on new raw materials.
This has major implications for the circular economy; if you can reduce textile waste to zero then the techniques could theoretically be used across other manufacturing sectors. To discuss this, we are joined by Toby Moss and Erik Koep from Worn Again. Worn-Again focuses on recycling polycotton blends, which make up 80% of all textiles.
Erik and Toby explain how they navigate the intricacies of recycling materials in a world where the average garment contains multiple fabric blends, often with less than 1% of unknown materials. What strategies are they employing to expand their technology's reach, considering the scale of this global challenge?
The use of polyester in textiles is almost as widespread as the use of plastic bottles in Europe. Effective recycling methods for these widely used materials are essential in reducing environmental impact, marking an important stride in changing the industry's waste management and sustainability strategies.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the interchange recharged. I'm David Bammiller. Welcome. Today we look at an area of the |
| 0:05.5 | energy transition that's critical yet often overlooked in sustainability discussions. Textile |
| 0:10.8 | recycling. Joining us are Eric and Toby from Warnigan, pioneers in an industry where, astonishingly, |
| 0:17.3 | less than 1% of clothing is currently recycled into new garments. |
| 0:22.8 | Eric Cope is CEO of Warnigan. |
| 0:24.5 | We need to scale rapidly. |
| 0:30.2 | And one of the reasons that we are pursuing a licensing model is so that we can scale quicker than we could if we were just doing it ourselves. |
| 0:32.9 | Toby Moss is director of business development. |
| 0:35.5 | Over the last 20, 30 years, we've seen this huge rise in synthetics being used in clothing, |
| 0:41.3 | and polyester is now one of the largest clothing markets. |
| 0:45.3 | Warn again focuses on recycling of poly-cotton blends, which make up 80% of all textiles. |
| 0:50.3 | They're not just tackling the sizeable issue of textile waste head on. They're |
| 0:55.3 | innovating in a sector where annually a shocking 92 million of textile waste is generated globally. |
| 1:00.9 | We'll look at the complexities and triumphs of scaling such technology. How does Warnigan |
| 1:05.5 | navigate the intricacies of recycling materials in a world where the average garment today contains multiple fabric blends, |
| 1:12.6 | often with less than 1% of unknown materials. |
| 1:15.5 | What strategies are they employing to expand their technology's reach, considering the scale |
| 1:20.2 | of the global challenge? |
| 1:21.6 | What role can textile recycling play in our transition to a more sustainable world? |
| 1:26.9 | Let's find out. Toby, welcome to the show. |
| 1:29.3 | Hi, David. How are you? Good. Eric, thanks to joining us. Thank you, David. So Toby, let me start |
| 1:34.7 | with you, Warren Again. Tell us a little bit about what you guys do. So warn again is a chemical |
... |
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