TEXTILES.ORG
According to the United Nations’ Environment Programme, cities globally are expected to produce 2.2 billion tons of waste each year by 2025. Given the economic, environmental and health impacts of waste, it is important for the textile industry to reduce, reuse and recycle the waste. For example, in a spinning mill, recyclable and reusable textile waste from the blending room to winding ranges from 15 percent to 25 percent. Waste costs money in and of itself, and it adds to the cost of production. In the case of textile mills where natural fibers and their blends form the bulk of waste, additional cost is incurred for disposing of non-biodegradable materials and functional chemicals.
The process of eliminating synthetic waste, both during processing and after use, provides additional challenges. The technical textile sector is based on synthetic products and chemical formulations. This aspect of the industry brings it more attention in terms of its carbon footprint and efforts to minimize and eliminate waste and its accompanying expense. While these are burdens for the industry, it also provides opportunities for the development of innovative technologies for reusing the post-industrial and post-consumer wastes and recycling. Processing waste from industrial and technical textiles industries can create new sectors, enabling new products and creating new jobs.
Raw materials
Reduce, reuse, and recycle [the 3Rs] are important tools we have for in creating circularity. The profitability of the manufacturing sector is impacted by the price of the raw materials selected, which can impact the overall price of the final product as much as 70 percent. Therefore, the quality of raw materials must take the front seat in manufacturing. The textile industry uses natural and synthetic materials, and hence sorting them for proper reuse and disposal is the first step towards circularity.
Natural fiber-based spinning mills have more chances of raw material contamination, so cost reduction begins with the procurement of contamination-free cotton. Cotton producers and the textile industry are focused on reducing plastic contamination in cotton bale. India is a leading producer of cotton and a leading exporter of textile goods. The Indian spinning sector is looking at importing cotton from a leading cotton exporter like the U.S. due to its cleanliness, provided the price is competitive with domestic cotton.
Textile waste from mills can be recovered and re-used; in the spinning process, recovering usable fibers from waste adds to the profit. According to Kanthimathinathan Aramvalarthanathan, Coimbatore, India-based textile consultant, about 40 percent of waste from blowroom and carding, and 25 percent from the flat in the carding process can be recovered and consumed as useful fiber. Among different wastes recovered, comber noil is routinely used as recycled fiber in open end yarn spinning and these yarns find applications in home textiles such as bed sheets.
“Saw ginned cotton, as is the case with the United States’ cotton industry, has trash less than 1.5 percent, while Indian cotton may have trash of about 3-4 percent, and hence additional cleaning points are needed,” says Velmurugan Shanmugam, General Manager of Aruppukkottai-based Jayalakshmi Textiles, which has 72,000 ring spindles.
Economic advantages
Velmurugan Shanmugam agrees, saying that high quality waste, such as comber noils and fibers from flat strips of the carding process, find ready application in spinning coarse yarns which are used for manufacturing home textiles. Many home textile products have recycled and post-industrial waste. Importantly, the home textiles sector provides good opportunities for export to Europe and the U.S. from textile exporters like India and Bangladesh.
The textile industry needs to focus on productivity and increase product realization. ”With an increase of 1 percent in yarn realization, our cotton spinning mill with an average count of 70s Ne can enhance its profit by 10 million Indian Rupees,” says Velmurugan Shanmugam. The above facts emphasize the importance of reducing waste, increasing productivity and product realization.
As briefed above, extraneous materials in textile manufacturing are costly. In natural fiber-based textile processing, removal of foreign matters, which may or may not be reusable, is mandatory. Coimbatore-based Nestling technologies India Pvt. Ltd. is developing vision-based technologies to segregate plastic and other trash from cotton right from ginning to textile manufacturing.
“Trash not detected earlier in cotton bales translates into several meters in yarns and fabrics costing a fortune for the industry,” says Chandrasekaran Somasundaram, managing director of Nestling Technologies. Reducing waste and removal of trash should be taking priority, thereby enhancing the sustainability of the textile industry.
Additional advantages
Reducing waste lessens the environmental burden and landfill problem. In addition to reducing waste, economic efficiency can be enhanced by reusing usable waste. Textile waste from conventional textile mills can be translated to value-added textiles. Textile mills’ sweeping wastes can be made into bonded mats that can find applications such as oil absorbent, kitchen mats, mitts that find environmentally friendly technical textile products.
Jayalakshmi Textiles has used cotton wastes and natural binder to develop recycled material that can be reused multiple times. This is a good example of solving complex environmental problems, such as oil spills, disposal of wipes and coveralls laden with oil and toxic chemicals, which helps to protect human fauna and flora.
Pioneering efforts by the Mumbai, India-based Central Institute of Research on Cotton Technology (CIRCOT) has resulted in converting cotton stalks into hard boards. It is a normal practice to burn stalks in some countries or till the stalks into the land. The technology developed at CIRCOT prevents environmental problems when burning is practiced, as it contributes to air pollution.
Technical textiles recycling
The advanced textiles sector is synthetic fiber-based, and hence the cost of recycling and the environmental burden is higher than the natural fiber-based industry. Among the different sub-segments of the technical textiles sector, the defense textiles industry occupies a prominent place, and governments have to regularly spend on procuring antiballistics, flame-resistant materials, and various kinds of personal protective equipment (PPE).
The use of recycled materials in this sector is in its infancy. Quebec-based General Recycled is endeavoring to change this landscape by recycling flame-resistant meta- and para-aramids to develop products that can be used by oil and gas sectors and the energy industry.
Highlighting the opportunities in recycling and reusing advanced textiles, Dave Kasper, vice president of sales at General Recycled ltd. says, “Some companies do not see value in recycling.” General Recycled has its manufacturing facility in Val-des-Sources in Quebec and uses renewable hydroelectric power making the operation carbon neutral. General Recycled’s operating philosophy is “closed loop,” enabling major multinationals to reduce their carbon footprints.
The advanced textiles industry is slow in chasing the recycling and reusing race, but it has enormous opportunities in embracing circularity. COVID-19 has shown the need to evolve standards and develop standard operating policies (SOPs) to reuse PPEs. While it is not possible to totally replace synthetics in the world of advanced textiles, effective processes towards reducing, reusing and recycling need to be developed. Companies like Jayalakshmi Textiles and General Recycled are leading efforts to reduce and reuse waste to develop value-added products.
Dr. Seshadri Ramkumar is a professor in the Department of Environmental Toxicology and The Institute of Environmental and Human Health, Texas Tech University, and a regular contributor to Textile Technology Source.