EVER WONDER WHY CLOTHING ENDS UP IN LANDFILLS INSTEAD OF BEING RECYCLED? HERE’S WHY…

By: Hillary LeBlanc

As we continue to look for ways to make our wardrobes sustainable, we are often told to thrift, purchase high quality items with longevity or to recycle our clothes. Even when we recycle our plastics and trash we are told there are stipulations. Glass, aluminium, cardboard and paper are all recyclable but only some plastics qualify in Canada. Considering the extensive push in media encouraging consumers to recycle trash and waste, it’s no surprise that recycling clothing and textiles is not as easy as simply tossing your garments in the recycling bin. Here are the major considerations when it comes to recycling clothes and how to do it properly.

With 100 billion garments made annually and 33% going into landfills within the first year of being purchased, recycling these garments seems like an easy fix to mitigate this issue. When we talk about recycling a garment, we are discussing the process of recovering garments and bringing them back to a fibrous state to be turned into something new. 

The first issue for the recyclability of a garment is the textile blend. The more variety of fibres used to create a piece of clothing, the more difficult it will be to separate the fibres for recycling. If a garment is a 100% homogenous blend, like 100% cotton, then it is easier to recycle than fibres such as elastane, which are a mix used to create stretch. 

Credit: Camila Damásio @miladamasio

Components such as zippers and buttons hinder a garment’s recyclability more than we think. After the items are sorted and textile makeup is assessed, any components that render the garment unrecyclable are removed which takes time and costs money. Anything containing elastane is removed from the garment. Then, brand and care labels are removed as they are usually made of polyester. Zippers, linings and embroideries are then cut off the item. Lastly, if any stitching is different than the fabric of the garment it must also be removed before the garment can be recycled.

Currently only 13.6% of garments thrown away in the US are recycled. In the UK, the Oxfam Wastesaver sorting team sees 80 tonnes of clothes weekly. Of those 80 tonnes, 35% go to partners in Senegal to be sold, 1-3% go back to shops within the UK to be re-sold, but approximately six tonnes are in such poor condition they end up torn up to be used as industrial cleaning clothes, car seat filler or mattress stuffing. 

Other than hand sorting the garments and removing all embellishments that limit the recyclability of the garment, textiles are recycled either mechanically or chemically. If what is left of the garment is a fibre blend, then mechanical fibre recycling methods will be used to shred apart the garment and create shorter length fibres, resulting in lower quality textiles. As this textile cannot be used for clothing, it is referred to as a method of “downcycling”. The new textile would then be used for thermal insulation or carpet in the building industry. 

Chemical fibre recycling can be used on large quantities of one type of fibre such as polyester or nylon. However, due to the lengthy process and additional chemicals used, the new textile produced from this recycling method is often more expensive than the original fabric. 

There has been small success in trying to separate the natural and synthetic fibre blends in order to keep both fibres intact for repurposing, though it has been hard to grow these businesses. One group of researchers in Hong Kong is finding success in taking cotton and polyester blends and feeding them to fungi that can break down the enzymes and produce syrup. The remaining fibres are then used to make new clothing. Similarly, researchers in Austria are using enzymes to turn wool into materials that can be used in resin or adhesive. 

While it would be easier to only worry about the textile of our clothing and hope that by donating it or repurposing it we can give it new life, that isn’t the reality. As consumers we can ask ourselves if purchasing the garments with the most buttons, zippers and detailing is necessary, but we can also ask designers to find ways to create looks that are more easy to recycle. Designers can incorporate more recycle-friendly textiles, less embellishments, care and wash labels with recyclable materials and even consider offering mending and recycling programs at their own stores to encourage the longevity of their textiles. 

Before you put any garments in the garbage, make sure to ask yourself how recyclable it is and if there might be a better place for the garment to spend the rest of it’s life instead of a landfill.