Recycling of waste textiles

Nowadays, living conditions are getting better and better. Who doesn’t have a few sets of clothes? With the rapid development of the textile industry, there is waste when there is production. The recycling of waste textiles is a major event. Next, China renewable technology will learn about it with you. The source and significance of waste textile recycling.

waste cotton recycling

Sources of waste textiles

There are three main sources of waste textiles: first, waste silk and residues in the production process and leftovers in the garment production process; Second, discarded clothes, bedding, curtains, sofa towels, carpets, etc; Third, polyester bottles and other waste plastics with usable value. The comprehensive utilization rate of waste textiles in China is very low every year. Most old clothes are treated as garbage and finally buried or incinerated. The harm caused by such unreasonable utilization should not be underestimated.

Recycling and pretreatment of waste textiles

Clean

Before reusing waste textiles, it is necessary to pre wash, rinse, dry and disinfect them. In this link, an important influencing factor is the water treatment and circulation system. Common disinfection methods include ultraviolet disinfection, steam disinfection and disinfectant immersion disinfection. The cost of disinfection by soaking in disinfectant is high, which is harmful to clothes, so this method is generally not used.

Fiber separation

Most of the recycled waste products contain a variety of fiber components, so fiber separation should be carried out before processing and utilization. The most common textiles are made of polyester fiber and cotton fiber. We can decompose polyester and filter out cotton fiber; Or use viscose method or copper ammonia method and acid to degrade the cotton fiber, and then filter out the polyester fiber to separate the cotton fiber. For a variety of synthetic fiber blended fabrics, they can be crushed into water and then separated by centrifuge.

waste cotton recycling machine

Processing and utilization of waste textiles

At present, there are mainly four methods for the processing and utilization of waste textiles: mechanical method, chemical method, physical method and thermal method.

Mechanical method

The mechanical method can directly process and utilize the waste pieces of waste textiles; Or recycled fiber directly processed into yarn. In recent years, the ring spinning, friction spinning and rotor spinning technologies in the textile industry have become more and more mature, which effectively deal with the fibers in the recycled waste products and ensure the quality of yarn. For example, the separated waste cotton and noil are used as the raw material of rotor yarn. Through the treatment of waste cotton and silk return, a special industrial base cloth has been developed, which provides an important guarantee for the recycling and cleaner production of textile fibers.

Chemical method

Polyester fiber is the most important component in current textiles. The polymer in synthetic fiber is degraded by chemical method and converted into monomer, and then these monomers are further processed into new chemical fiber materials. At present, the treatment methods of this kind of waste products mainly include hydrolysis, alcoholysis, pyrolysis and supercritical method.

Physical method

The physical method can not destroy the chemical structure of polymer and change its internal composition, and make it meet the quality of textile raw materials through relevant treatment.

Thermal method

Thermal energy method is mainly a method to convert the heat energy generated in the incineration process of waste textiles into energy. The main application field is thermal power generation.

waste cotton recycling machine

Most textile waste products are buried or burned, and rarely recycled as waste resources. Because many chemical fiber textiles are not easy to decompose, they cause serious pollution to the land after burial, and produce a large number of toxic gases after incineration, resulting in air pollution. When old clothes and fabrics are no longer discarded at will and will not be sold again, but clean and safe raw materials are generated through environmental protection, which can not only save a lot of fossil fuels, but also protect the environment, but also stimulate employment opportunities in multiple industrial chains.