Current Status of Fiber Waste Recycling and its Future

Abstract

A higher amount of post industrial and post consumer fiber waste has been accumulated, due to the growth in world population, overall improvement of living standards and global fiber consumption. General descriptions of fibrous waste, statistics, material characteristics (compositions) and sources in the world were provided. The state-of-the-art of textile wastes recycling has been presented. Varied recycling technologies have been developed so as to maximize the use of the fibrous waste collected. Prevailing recycling technologies, including reusing, recycling, incineration, and landfill, are reviewed. Some promising recycling techniques, such as dissolution and deploymerization, which are applicable to valuable PET or nylon, were focused upon in this paper. The summary on some selected recycling technologies and products from the recycling processes was also offered. Different combinations of incineration, materials recycling, and biological treatment of biodegradable waste, or landfilling could be an expectable choice, a system analysis should be done for diverse waste textile treatment options. Observations on future trends and needs for further development are discussed in the end. Intensive research and development that make lower added-value recycled products from waste textiles should be encouraged, which can consume the largest volume low value waste textiles.