Collaborative effort to boost textile recycling in North America
30/10/2024
The three partners plan to plan to pilot-test the collection, sorting and grading of discarded apparel. The portion of textiles that are not suitable for resale will be sent to Reju for recycling when the start-up will have established a recycling facility in the United States.
Reju, whose recycling process was originally developed by IBM (VolCat), is now owned by German machinery maker Technip Energies. This past September, a first demonstration plant was opened in Frankfurt, Germany, and production of Reju polyester is expected to begin in 2025. “This continuous demo plant has a capacity of 1,000 tonnes,” Patrik Frisk, CEO, told WSA at Performance Days last week.
The company’s glycolysis-based process reverts polyester fibres back to BHET, one of the two pathways to producing polyester. “Our process is unique in its speed and yield,” he said. The company can efficiently et economically break down 70/30 blends of polyester and cotton, and deliver a high quality version of polyester. “The point of Reju is to deliver a better quality yarn in its second life. It will shed less, take in colour better and capture less moisture.”
An initial life cycle assessment, based on the company’s current process book and conducted by Deloitte, suggests that 1 kg of Reju polyester will have a 50% lower carbon footprint than virgin polyester.
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