We're behind on clothing recycling

Reading time: 2 min — Spotted on bbc

The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions, with textile production alone releasing 1.2 billion tonnes into the atmosphere each year. Large amounts of water are also needed to produce the clothes we wear. This industry is responsible for 20% of global wastewater, according to the BBC.

We have never bought so many clothes as now. The average consumer buys 60% more clothes today than fifteen years ago. More than 2 tonnes of clothes per minute are sold in the UK, more than in any other country in Europe. Globally, around 56 million tonnes are purchased each year. This figure is expected to increase to 93 million by 2030 and 160 million by 2050.

Bad student of recycling

Industry figures suggest that modern suits have a lifespan of two to ten years. Underwear and t-shirts only last one to two years, while suits and coats tend to last four to six years.

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Currently, only 13.6% of discarded clothing and footwear in the United States is recycled, while the average American only throws away 37 kg of clothing each year. Globally, only 12% of the materials used for clothing are recycled. If we compare this figure to that of paper, glass and PET plastic bottles, whose recycling rates are 66%, 27% and 29% respectively in the United States, it is clear that clothing is at the train.

Indeed, most of the recycled polyester pieces used today by major fashion brands actually come from bottles rather than old togs.

Partial recycling

A big part of the problem is tissue composition. They result from complex combinations of fibres, accessories and devices. Their manufacture is made from mixtures of natural yarns, artificial filaments, plastics and metals.

It is therefore difficult to separate these components so that they can be recycled efficiently. Manually sorting textiles into different fibers and different types of materials is labor intensive, slow and requires skilled labor. Once sorted, the dyes that have been applied to the fabrics must be removed so that the threads can be reused.

Still, a tiny fraction of clothes sent for recycling are actually transformed into new clothes, a process known as “material-to-material recycling”. Old wool sweaters, for example, can be turned into rugs, recycled cashmere into suits. But, in 2015, less than 1% of used clothes were recycled in this way.