Discarded Clothes Rebirth: The Waste Textile Transformed Into A Treasure Bowl

One truckload of textiles is landfilled or incinerated every second;

Clothing is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters, accounting for approximately 10% of total emissions;

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A variety of recycling methods for waste textiles have been developed in recent years. The three recycling methods of "physical recycling, chemical recycling, and RDF/SRF alternative fuel (energy recovery)" have become the main ways to utilize waste textile resources.

PART 1 PHYSICAL RECYCLING

Physical recycling uses mechanical assistance to decompose or crush textiles without destroying the chemical structure of the polymer or changing its composition. It is processed by collecting, classifying, purifying, drying, adding necessary additives, and then reusing it in fabrics.

It is often used for single-component natural fibers or synthetic fibers, such as the recycling of waste wool fibers and polyester fibers. However, for blended fibers, classification is difficult, making their applicability relatively poor. The technical requirements for physical recycling are high. Many machines and equipment are used in the pre-treatment process which causes high costs. And the recycling process is complex.

PART 2 CHEMICAL RECYCLING

Chemical recycling uses chemical methods to treat waste textiles. It depolymerizes, decomposes, repolymerizes, and spins the high molecular polymers in waste textiles such as natural fibers or chemical fibers to obtain monomers, and then uses these monomers to make new fibers.

Chemical recycling does not apply to natural fibers. Because the composition of natural fibers is complex, it is almost impossible to sort and recycle them. For synthetic fibers, the chemical recycling process is quite complex and requires the addition of many chemical solvents and chemical substances, which increases the recycling cost and makes it difficult to apply.

*PART 3 RDF/SRF ALTERNATIVE FUEL PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY

RDF/SRF alternative fuel is to process waste textiles into high calorific value RDF/SRF alternative fuel through integrated industrial preparation technology. The fuel can be used in industrial kilns such as power plants and cement plants to replace traditional fossil fuels (such as coal), thus significantly reducing carbon emissions caused by the use of fossil fuels.

At present, RDF/SRF alternative fuel preparation technology applies to all waste textiles without limiting any fiber material. The process is simpler, more convenient and more mature than chemical recycling and physical recycling.

For example, Harden Machinery’s industrial solid waste RDF/SRF alternative fuel processing system is mainly aimed at general industrial solid waste such as waste textiles and leather scraps. Using refined processing processes such as "crushing + air separation + magnetic separation", the metal parts and heavy materials in the waste clothing are separated, and finally finely crushed into RDF/SRF alternative fuels of 30mm-120mm size.

The RDF/SRF alternative fuel prepared in this way has a higher calorific value, a lower heat loss coefficient, and an average combustion calorific value of 4500-5000 kcal, which is equivalent to three-quarters of coal. According to statistics, every 1.5 tons of RDF/SRF alternative fuel used can reduce 1 ton of raw coal, thereby reducing 2.25 tons of CO2 emissions.