Photo by Victor Volkov on Unsplash (illustrative)
On 29 January 2025, chemists at the University of Amsterdam published a method in Nature Communications for recycling polycotton, a blend of cotton and polyester. Recycling such mixed fabrics has long been a challenging problem, because the two fibers need completely different treatments.
Key facts
The process first uses concentrated hydrochloric acid at room temperature to break down the cotton into glucose, leaving the polyester fibers intact.
It achieved a 75% glucose yield from the cotton fraction.
The remaining polyester was converted by glycolysis into BHET, a building block for new polyester, with a 78% yield.
The method was scaled from the laboratory to a 230-liter pilot-plant reactor using real post-consumer polycotton waste.
Why it matters
Recovering both materials from blended fabric could turn discarded textiles into feedstock for new plastics and chemicals instead of waste. A workwear maker, Groenendijk Bedrijfskleding, is among the project's partners.
Worth noting
The technology is still in development and not yet commercial. The senior author is also chief technology officer of Avantium, the company whose pilot plant was used, and the project was only about halfway through at the time.