Clean chemical recycling of clothing dyes

Could this innovative process help to keep garments out of landfill?

Spotted: According to WRAP, £140 million worth of clothes are sent to landfills in the UK alone every year. Old clothes can easily be resold or donated to reduce waste, but recycling them has historically been a tricky task, with fabric blends and the presence of dyes making it difficult to completely separate garments into their original components. Now though, DyeRecycle has an answer.

The UK startup, which was spun out of Imperial College London, uses a unique green chemistry process to selectively extract dyes from synthetic materials, leaving behind clean, decoloured fibres that can be sent to recyclers. Often, this textile re-whitening process is conducted using bleach, but DyeRecycle instead uses a more sustainable, green chemical solvent. The recovered dye can then be used to colour new clothes.

According to the company, its innovative technology can reduce up to 85 per cent of the greenhouse emissions currently associated with virgin polyester manufacturing and existing dyeing processes. DyeRecycle also has another offering: DyeRecycle Cellulosics, which is a process that breaks cotton down into a cellulosic powder that can be used in new fabric pigments.

In May this year, DyeRecycle announced that it had closed a $1.2 million seed funding round, which saw involvement from the likes of PDS Ventures and Octopus Ventures. The company also received $1 million in equity-free match funding from Innovate UK and is using the recent financing to expand its team and production capacity to facilitate pilot projects, as well as help secure new partnerships with key industry players.

Written By: Matilda Cox