The Recycling Revolution: Nothing Goes to Waste

Recycling and the Fashion Industry: What You Need to Know

When you send your clothes to charity shops or drop them off at clothing bins, you might be assuming the best - that they will wind up being worn and loved by someone else, and at the end of their lifetime, they’ll be recycled into something new.

Or maybe, like many people, you’re not thinking about what happens at all.

Simply dropping off something that’s been burdening you (those old clothes you never wear taking up valuable drawer and wardrobe space) and breathing a sigh of relief that they are no longer your problem to deal with.

Unfortunately the reality isn’t quite as rosy as we would like it to be. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, less than 12% of clothing is recycled.

Recent years have shown some promising advancements, and we’re working with incredible minds and companies that are building the solutions that will make it possible for anything and everything textile-waste to be recycled.

But we’re fighting fast fashion, whose rapid growth outpaces the current recycling capabilities. That’s why here at Reskinned we knew we had to think big, in order to tackle this growing issue.

We don’t take the word revolution lightly, but we made it our mission to revolutionise the world of textile recycling.

Because no clothes should end up in landfill.

Recycling: What actually goes on?

Most of us don’t know the ins and outs of fabric recycling, and the common ways it’s done. So we thought we’d give you a brief intro into the two kinds of recycling that make up the majority of how our clothes end up as something else.

Mechanical Recycling

First, we have mechanical recycling - the old trusted method that has existed for the longest and has long been a cornerstone of the textile recycling world.

It involves big, scary-looking machines that shred textiles into small pieces, which are mostly then used for insulation and stuffing materials.

Mechanical recycling is great for fabrics like cotton, but it struggles with blended materials (your cotton-elastane t-shirt for example) because stretchy fibres can be tough to break down.

Chemical Recycling

Then we have mechanical recycling’s more science-y sister method, chemical recycling. Yes, science-y is the technical term.

A much more recent recycling solution, we call chemical recycling the newbie of the recycling world.

It uses - you guessed it - chemicals to break down materials at a molecular level, they offer the opportunity to transform textiles into brand-new materials.

The opportunities offered by this method are huge and hold immense promise for the industry, offering a solution to recycle the tricky blended fabrics that mechanical recycling isn’t able to tackle.

Right now, the method is still in early stages, but of course we got in there as soon as we could, collaborating with some incredible facilities that can break fabrics right back down to their original molecules.

But more on that later…

So how do we decide how each thing gets recycled?

A great thing about clothes is that they can be made out of many different materials.

And taking that even further, they can be made from multiple materials blended together, creating unique qualities that make them more comfortable, stretchy, breathable… the list goes on.

The flip side of this is that each different fabric and combination of fabrics needs a different recycling solution.

Often we can’t tell the exact fabric composition just by looking at something, and the labels on clothes can be inaccurate, meaning guesswork isn’t going to cut it.

Not to mention hiring people to review each and every garment that needs recycling and try to figure out what to do with it - that’s a pretty huge task.

The solution? Our Matoa machine, an innovative fabric scanner that allows us to accurately find out the fabric composition of any textile, with a quick swipe.

The sophisticated system differentiates material compositions, letting us quickly choose which recycling method is best.

And this is only the beginning! The more we can sort, the more we can recycle, and the more we can keep great clothes out of landfill.

Innovations in Textile Recycling

There are some pretty exciting things happening in the recycling industry, and we’re proud to be a part of them! Here are a few things we have going on at the moment.

Recycling Cotton

We’ve been working with industry leaders Renewcell for two years now as their UK consolidator for post-industrial waste. Together we’re investigating including post consumer textiles in our recycling too, including denim and soft cotton like t-shirts and home textiles.

Recycling Polyester

This is a fabric that pops up all the time in the fashion industry because it’s extremely affordable, and also has excellent performance qualities due to its strength and durability.

The low price point of the fabric has unfortunately meant that very little investment has gone into recycling technology for it. Up until now, that is.

Ethical thinking within the fashion industry has recognised a need for an end of life solution for polyester garments, and new recycling innovations are emerging.

As part of the ACT innovation scheme, we’ve been tasked with creating an Automated Textile Sortation Plant, and are working towards solutions that will bring elastane recycling into the mainstream very soon.

Recycling Wool

One of the oldest fabrics, wool is a great natural insulator, and has been growing in popularity again recently due to its environmentally friendly credentials.

This has sparked new interest in the lost art of pulling and spinning wool here in the UK.

We’ve been recycling wool for years with our partners in Prato, Italy - the home of fine wool. In the last year we’ve taken it one step further, working with our brand partners to provide a 100% UK based collection, sorting, recycling, spinning and knitting process.

Recycling Elastane

These stretchy little fibres seem to find their way into almost every item of clothing, from jeans to t-shirts to evening dresses and sportswear.

Unfortunately the fibres can be challenging to spot using infrared material detection devices, and almost impossible to recycle using mechanical or chemical solutions because it’s so durable and stretchy.

We’ve come up with solutions that prolong the useful life of the fabric, and offset the use of new materials.

With naturally strong and bouncy qualities, what better way to use elastane than in punch bags?

You can hit it all day long as hard as you like and it will spring right back to the original shape.

Because there’s a lot of elastane fabric out there, and not quite the same demand for punch bags, we’ve come up with some other solutions too, teaming up with pet bed manufactures for an eco-friendly filling to give furry friends a soft place to sleep.

Now it’s time for you to do your bit…

So we’ve given you a fair bit to think about, when it comes to recycling. But you didn’t think we’d let you off with not taking part did you?

Now’s your chance to give back, taking part in our takeback scheme to ensure your clothes never end up in landfill and are recycled responsibly.

And if you want to stay up to date with the goings-on in the world of recycling, follow our blog here.