Textile waste analysis
Textile waste is very heterogeneous: textiles are collected for recycling from different sources, and are composed of different fabrics, different dyes, different finishes... Even a simple white T-shirt is often manufactured from multiple materials (for example, cotton fabric panels, polyester thread and an elastic neck).
Recycling requires careful separation of this mixed waste into relatively pure, single material streams. Even small fractions of contaminants or misidentified textiles can compromise the recycling process, resulting in final products that are of insufficient quality to re-enter textile production. A preliminary analysis of the waste composition can be performed using fast infra-red scanning techniques to identify and sort textile items, similarly to what happens for plastic waste recycling. However, this is not accurate enough to achieve the purity required for a successful recycling process, and is heavily affected by the textile colour, thickness and even age!
In this work package we will develop an analytical pipeline to accurately determine the composition of textile waste samples by breaking the fibres down into their chemical components. We’re particularly interested in synthetics (polyester, nylon, elastane), as these are almost always used in blends with multiple other fibres, complicating their separation, and have the largest market share in textile production globally.
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The presence of colours in textile waste makes recycling challenging. This work package aims at developing a universal and efficient colour stripping process.
The goal of this work package is to establish strategies for textile waste separation into chemically different fractions, mainly cellulose fibres and polyester fraction.
The goal of this work package is to develop depolymerisation and re-polymerisation processes for chemical recycling of synthetic fibres.
The TexirC project will support Finnish companies in their efforts to create a more sustainable textile industry.
News
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Researchers at Aalto University have developed a groundbreaking wood bonding method using primarily pulp fibers from Finnish forestry. The resulting bonding interface is twice as strong as natural wood while highly resistant to water. This breakthrough could transform sustainable construction by reducing reliance on petroleum-based adhesives.
Brighter together: designing sustainable technologies to create electronic devices
An article about an Aalto research project focusing on light-emitting electrochemical cells has been published in Chemical Science.
Aalto University and Pääkaupunkiseudun Kierrätyskeskus Oy explored new ways to recycle discarded books
What should we do with discarded books which paper quality and ink composition vary greatly? The study showed that processing discarded books into textiles is possible, but it turned out to be costly with its own environmental impact.