On Monday came the news that Swedish textile recycling darling ‘Renewcell’ was bankrupt. Renewcell was a textile ‘advanced’ or ‘chemical’ textiles recycler who aimed to process mostly-cotton textiles (such as bedsheets and jeans) with a series of chemical treatment steps to produce a substitute for wood pulp from trees, which was intended to make, for …
Starbucks’ Compostable Coffee Cup Gamble
By Dr. Ashley Holding In March, coffee giant Starbucks announced the pilot of a range of compostable coffee cups in its stores in selected locations. But what are they made of, how are they different from other compostable coffee cups, and are they really sustainable? The idea originated from the NextGen Cup Challenge – a …
Recycled Polyester and the Plastic Bottle Dilemma
By Paula Lorenz The Thing About Polyester One thing increasingly noticeable on the internet are ads for sustainable clothing made from recycled polyester. Many brands are now marketing recycled polyester clothes, from small ranges or capsule collections by bigger brands, to niche brands that have made this their USP. To the average, eco-conscious consumer this …
Cotton’s Tricky Problem in a Circular Economy
Cotton has long been one of the most important fibres in the textile industry. Accounting for roughly 25 per cent of the global fibre production it ranks second right after polyester in terms of market share.