The UK buries over £1 billion of potentially recyclable clothing fibres in landfill each year, according to a new study published in the latest issue (166 WR1) of the ICE Waste and Resource Management journal.
Despite these findings, the industry is still a long way from being able to recover this cost.
Tracing discarded clothing
While clothing made from mixed fibres is clearly difficult to recycle, researchers at Leeds University found that 64% of discarded clothing is actually made from a single fibre, such as cotton, and so is potentially recyclable. They analysed over 30,000 garments from clothing banks, charity shops and door-to-door collections throughout the UK.
According to the authors, discarded clothing accounts for around 1 million tonnes of the UK’s annual municipal solid waste which goes to landfill. The potential recycled value of single-fibre garments – based on around £1500 per tonne virgin fibre cost – is therefore over £1 billion.
Discarded single-fibre materials:
64% cotton
18% polyester
7% acrylic
5% wool
3% nylon
2% viscose
No regional variations
Cotton was found to dominate discarded single-fibre garments, with 64% by weight, followed by significant amounts of polyester and other materials. Overall, with mixed-fibre garments included, cotton accounts for 55% and polyester 23%.
‘No marked regional variations were observed,’ says lead author Garth Ward.
Future challenges
However, as Ward points out, ‘Conventional clothing is not designed to be readily recycled at the end of life.’ He says that this and the lack of cost-effective disassembly tools and recycling processes means that production of high quality fibre from discarded clothing remains ‘challenging’.
For more information, please contact the ICE Proceedings editor Simon Fullalove on +44 20 7665 2448 or at editor@ice.org.uk.