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As apparel brands and manufacturers strive to meet industry sustainability standards, they can’t lose sight of the advances currently being made in the recycling process, and how to take advantage of them.
The LYCRA Company is hosting a series of global panel discussions with 28 apparel industry experts on critical sustainability issues facing the sector. For the second topic, panelists discussed the pros and cons of creating recycled fibers using mechanical versus chemical methods and what is needed to make garment recycling a commercial reality.
In mechanical recycling, the input can include materials from outside the textile industry such as PET water bottles in the case of polyester, or fabrics from within the industry that get shredded and turned into new fibers. These recycled fibers usually have lower tensile strength than virgin fibers, meaning they generally cannot be recycled at end-of-life unless they are mixed with virgin materials.
In chemical recycling, a series of chemical processes is used to separate and recycle blended fabrics. The resulting recycled fibers have the same strength and performance characteristics as virgin fibers, enabling them to...