Swedish company makes cotton recycling breakthrough
Swedish company re:newcell has developed a technology which allows cotton waste to be recycled into new textile pulp. The company, who has been working on the development since 2012, are to build a factory at the AkzoNobel facility in the Swedish city of Kristinehamn in order to start the initial production line.
The dissolving pulp, which is usually made from trees, is principally used to manufacture textile fibre materials such as Viscose or Lyocel. Up until this breakthrough, it had not been possible to recycle cotton into textile material suitable for use in the fashion industry.
"We are very pleased to now be able to move forward and contribute to realizing the dream of a sustainable textile industry,” re:newcell chairman Malcolm Norlin said.
Global textile demand is currently around 90 million tons per year, only a third of which is natural materials such as cotton. The rest is made up of mostly oil-based materials such as polyester, elastane and nylon. The company believes that through its recycling process of cellulosic-based textile fibres, the usage of the resources already available can be prolonged.
