How yesterday's waste is becoming tomorrow's fashion

How many clothes, items of bedding and other fabric have you thrown away this year?

While resale sites are growing in popularity, in the UK we still bin about 711,000 tonnes of textiles annually – roughly the weight of seven US aircraft carriers .

The global fashion and textiles industry is one of the most wasteful, but recycling firms in Peterborough and Northamptonshire are using technology to change that.

They are gaining the attention of major brands but say they need laws, as well as consumers, to support them.

In a warehouse next to the A14 in Kettering, a mountain of crumpled fabric is slowly fed into a machine.

There are dressing gowns, duvets, branded banners and lanyards from events including the Commonwealth Games.

All are made from polyester – the world's most commonly used textile fibre – and all have been thrown away.

Traditionally they would be burned or buried in landfill but Project Re:Claim is trying to change that.

The partnership between The Salvation Army's trading arm (SATCoL) and Plan B Circular operates what they say is the first commercial-scale polyester textile-to-textile recycling facility in Europe – technology adapted from a bottle recycling plant.

The Salvation Army collects the items and those that cannot be reused in their current form are shredded and melted.

Impurities such as dead skin cells and hair are removed and polyester pellets (rPET) are produced which can be used to make new clothes.

"It's the future: using the clothing we have today to make the clothing that we need tomorrow," says Plan B Circular founder Tim Cross.

"We process 500kg of fabric an hour but we could easily scale up if there was demand.

"The problem is encouraging clothing manufacturers to change from using virgin polyester to recycled polyester from old textiles. And to design their new clothes to be easily recycled at their end of life."

"A polyester blazer doesn't need nylon buttons and labels. A sports top doesn't need metal zips. It can all be polyester."

That is important because the plant can only recycle items that are 100% polyester.

Most clothing "is a fibre mix like polyester-cotton, or often three or four different materials," says Majonne Frost, head of sustainability at SATCoL.

Researchers are trialling ways to separate these fibres , but doing it at scale remains difficult and costly, so most of those items are eventually destroyed.

Project Re:Claim says its rPET requires 89% less carbon to make than virgin polyester.

"We send the pellets back to China in what would otherwise be empty shipping containers, and it's spun back into yarn," Cross adds.

"We have the technology but we're way behind with legislation. It absolutely should be driving the way we design and make clothing."

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EU rules are already changing and are forcing manufacturers to reduce the waste they produce, their environmental impact, and to make the industry circular.

It must ensure products are not only made from recycled content but are themselves recyclable at the end of their lives.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says it is "funding the UK Textiles Pact , which is driving ambitious targets to cut waste and increase the life cycle of materials".

In addition, Defra says "a taskforce of experts and businesses is looking at options to reduce waste in homes and businesses and will report back on next steps later this year".

Peterborough-based Gen Phoenix feels global consumer attitudes and legislation are beginning to drive change.

Every year it recycles thousands of tonnes of waste leather into new fabric which has been used by major brands, including Dr Martens, Nike and Coach.

It also specialises in train, bus and aviation seating.

"Jet2 was our first commercial customer, and now we're on one in every five commercial aircraft flying today," says chief executive John Kennedy.

"Our material has similar properties to traditional leather but with an 80% lower carbon footprint and it's lighter. Weight is important for airlines.

"We've saved more than 18,000 tonnes of material from landfill."

Leather is itself a waste product from the food industry, but still much is wasted that Gen Phoenix feels could be salvaged.

"If you think of an animal hide, it's the bits like the neck, the shoulders, the armpits, the belly – bits that don't make good finished leather," says Richard Peace, the company's senior director of research and technology.

The company ships in the waste as "wet blue" – the name given to hides partway through the leather process – from tanneries around the world.

It breaks the leather down into a fibre fluff, which is sprayed on to thin sheets of tissue paper.

The sheets are then sandwiched around a fabric – usually recycled polyester – before high-powered water jets bind all the fibres back together.

Called hydro-entanglement, it forms the new fabric without the need for resin binders, making the new product more easily recyclable.

"The importance of sustainability is seeing a groundswell, both in terms of legislation and consumer attitude - especially with Gen Z coming through," says Kennedy.

"Brands are definitely more invested and are being fairly quiet about the great work they're doing.

"We're continuing to innovate and expand, looking at recycling end process leather too.

"Peterborough is where we do all of our manufacturing and R&D (research and development), and while we may establish other sites, this is where the magic happens."

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