A partnership between H&M Foundation and The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) has found a way of chemically recycling polyester and cotton blended textiles into new polyester fabrics and yarns without any quality loss. The new fiber-to-fiber recycling process is seen as a major step towards closed-loop textile processing. It is expected to have no negative impact on fiber quality.

The aim of the four-year partnership was to find at least one ready technology to recycle clothes made from blended textiles. It has developed a hydrothermal process to fully separate and recycle cotton and polyester blends. The recovered polyester material can be reused directly without any quality loss.

The hydrothermal process uses only heat, water and less than five per cent of a biodegradable green chemical to self-separate cotton and polyester blends. This fiber-to-fiber recycling method is said to be cost effective and there’s no secondary pollution to the environment.

By being able to upcycle used textiles into new high value textiles, there is no need to solely rely on virgin materials to dress a growing world population. For too long the fashion industry has not been able to properly recycle its products. This encouraging breakthrough on separation and recycling of textile blends has the potential to change that.