Team Claims Textile Recycling Breakthrough
A new chemical technology has been created by researchers at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) to recycle polyester from mixed and contaminated waste textiles.
They claim it has also helped them develop a brand-new, lower-energy chemical recycling method for breaking down polyester into its basic monomers, which can then be used as the building blocks for brand-new materials of virgin quality.
The KRICT team used an unidentified “unique chemical compound” to separate polyester from waste textiles, a process they refer to as “chemical sorting”, according to a study published in the Journal of Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering from ACS.
Reference: www.ecotextile.com
