Photo: Collected
Known for its rapid production and consumption cycle, the textile industry currently generates between seven and 7.5 million tonnes of textile waste per year in the European Union (EU-27 and Switzerland). This is equivalent to more than 15 kg of textile waste per person per year. As recently indicated in the Mc-
Kinsey reports, that approximately 85% of this waste comes from clothes and home textiles discarded by end consumers while the remaining 15% originates from textile industries and textile retailers in the form of industrial offcuts and production surpluses.[1]
With regard to the management of post-consumer textile waste, a study carried out in 2022 by EURATEX, the European Apparel and Textile Confederation, reveals that only 33% of post-consumer textile waste is collected separately in Europe, whereas the remaining 67% is incinerated or ends up in landfills around the world. Of the post-consumer textile waste collected, 60% is sorted and separated for sale in second-hand shops while the remaining 40% is sent to recycling streams.[2] In addition, according to the European Environment Agency, more than 1.4 million tonnes of textile waste was exported outside the European Union in 2020.
Textile Industry Challenges
All these data on the generation of textile waste and its poor management are aggravated by what is known as fast fashion. Industries design and manufacture fast-paced, low-cost clothing collections in order to follow the latest fashion trends. The industry therefore offers consumers access to newly designed garments at affordable prices on a continuous basis, thus incentivizing the generation of textile waste. When combined with the lack of solid collection systems, this leads to an increase in global incineration and landfill rates.
Moreover, the wide variety of composition of today’s textiles (ranging from synthetic polymers such as polyester, polyamide and elastane to natural materials that include cotton, wool and linen) is another factor that hinders their circularity. All this implies the need to develop new separation and sorting technologies to determine the most appropriate destination. Artificial intelligence is now playing a key role in automating this process by making more efficient and accurate sorting possible.
However, uncontrolled production and consumption and the need for separate collection and sorting technologies are not the only critical points in the textile industry. Recycling processes are also in need of innovation and improvement to cope with the amount of textile waste generated worldwide. The complementarity of existing recycling technologies (described below) will play a key role in increasing sustainability in the industry. See details.
Source: Online/NAN
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