Scientists claim big advance in textile recycling        

A German-funded research project tackling one of the textile industry’s biggest recycling challenges is claiming a significant breakthrough.

If successful, the project could help transform used workwear into new high-performance textile products, which would bring the textile industry closer to full circularity.

Scientists on the project, called TheKey, say they have successfully recovered high-quality polyester raw materials from blended textile waste under conditions close to industrial production.

Polyester-cotton fabrics are widely used in workwear, protective clothing and sportswear because of their durability and comfort. However, recycling these blended materials remains difficult. Mechanical recycling often reduces material quality, while chemical processes can lead to material loss. Finding better solutions is essential to advancing a circular textile economy.

High quality standards

Funded by the German federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space, TheKey   has demonstrated the recovery of polyester’s original building blocks – terephthalic acid (TA) and ethylene glycol (EG) – from textile waste containing polyester. According to the project team, the recovered materials meet industry quality standards and can be used to produce new polyester.

‘We have now laid the foundation for producing high-quality PET fibres from used textiles,’ says Diana Wolf, manager R&D in environmental and process engineering at project partner Mewa.

Scaling technology

The process developed within the project is currently being refined to improve robustness, reproducibility and material recovery rates. The next phase will focus on scaling the technology towards a continuous industrial process.

While the polyester milestone is a major achievement, researchers are also working to recover cotton from blended fabrics. Cotton can already be extracted but the quality is not yet sufficient for direct recycling into existing cotton production streams.

By the end of the project, the partners aim to establish a fully circular solution for polyester-cotton textiles. Their goal is to produce PET fibres from recovered polyester monomers and high-quality cellulose pulp from cotton suitable for manufacturing new textile fibres.

Partners

TheKey brings together eight partners with expertise in textile technology, chemical engineering and materials science. The consortium includes Mewa Textil-Service, JAKO, matterr, the Research Institute for Textile and Clothing at Hochschule Niederrhein, the Institute for Chemical and Thermal Process Engineering at Technische Universität Braunschweig, the Ifeu Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg, Klopman and Hero-Textil.