Majority of them end up in a landfill within a year. And that looks about as bleak as youd expect. But new technologies could allow us to trim that number significant. Could they turn our towering heaps of distorted textiles, into useful green materials and help cut down on this insane waste . And how hard could it really be to recycle close . The good news for all the optimists out there. The fashion industry has a bound list room for improvement, especially since the rise of fast fashion, which we outlined in this report. Roughly 10 percent of all Global Carbon emission stem from the textile industry. Its also incredibly resource intensive guzzling up roughly 90000000000 cubic meters, water annually. Thats 4 percent of global fresh water usage. A lot more than water goes into producing our clothes. Almost always these and, but he does go through heavy, heavy chemical processes to make them the way they are today. Whether its finishing, whether its dying, brianca kind of collaborate with brands and producers to foster Sustainable Innovation in fashion. Which is why it is mostly not even the nation, but does andre di biodegradable and it takes sometimes over to 100 years for these materials to buy it as a degrade in the industrial. And thats a big problem because we produce a whole lot of textile waste. In the us, the text always has grown 80 percent since the year 2000. Rachel cubey runs circular services group, which is the parts industry and government and reaching sustainability goals. It is our Fastest Growing waste stream we send over 30000000000. 00 pounds of tech styles to landfill every year in the us alone. Most of our old clothes end up in landfills what doesnt, is frequently burned unsold stock, and donated old clothing are frequently shipped to the global south for resale, such as here. And im gonna, were 40 percent of what arrives is actually considered trash on arrival. To us, since more than 600000000 kilograms of use clothing abroad every year, largely to the rest of the americas or europe exports more than 1500000000 kilos. With much of it ending up in africa waste in these regions, winds up being dumps burned or polluting oceans and waterways. Tech style waste isnt just old. Well worn clothes that are ready for retirement. It also includes excess stock and the scripts generated during production. Less than one percent of the some of the, the, the spike going today. Which means all of this is going somewhere. When we collect close, theyre primarily going to be sorted for reuse. Thats the highest value, some of those plus maybe down cycle and so insulation, some may be sold as wiper rags and then a small portion can be mechanically recycled. But mechanical recycling has its limitations. In 2024 mechanical recycling is the best option we have. And that would shopping close up and spinning them into new fibers is way better than landfills. It often means a degradation in quality. And its rare that such materials can be recycled again. But that could change soon. There are a bunch of exciting new recycling companies, boasting new technology, battling for funding, and hoping to tailor a future for tech. So with chemical recycling or text, those are broken down to the molecular level and then rebuilt into a range materials is being counted as a better solution. Awesome companies, only recycle caught in australia is blocked. Techs can recycle blended material, treading waste and then chemically breaking down assignments and separating polyester from cellulose. A key natural or synthetic con polyester is converted into pellets which can be used for textiles or as materials and constructions. All cellulose is turned into clay that has use cases in textiles, agriculture and even packaging. The flexibility is intentional. I would never want to be beholden to my outtakes just to one brand, because i know how badly those those brands can behave. Adrian jones, co founded block text in 2018. Wait, that long takes to have that takes that can be useful to many rather than just be useful to want. I think thats been a real difference for us in the industry. Everybody is, is preoccupied with making more textiles. Log texts recently announced an expansion of capacity to 10000. 00 tons a year. Berlins refresh. Global also emphasizes flexibility using a biotech approach. Bacteria breaks down in sanitized, textile waste, creating 3 raw materials, now, cellulose, ethanol and sanitize textile polt. 3 refresh globals partners. These materials are used to make anything ranging from furniture to bite frames, to ethanol, base, cosmetics, refresh, global is a Newer Company than many competitors. And plans on developing a network of smaller facilities that can be developed quickly and flexibly with partners. That is a very different tack than swedens renew cell. One of the worlds biggest chemical tech stall recyclers. It was among the 1st a building, industrial scale, commercial tax dollar recycling facility. Here context, i was traded into a slurry separated from any contaminants, and then dried into sheets of what they called circulars, circular, cellulose, which could replace virgin materials like cotton oil or wood in the production of new high quality tech styles. Going down to the molecular level helps maintain quality and renew sol, set at circulars can go through the recycling process. 7 times there were limitations though, they could only recycle waste thats 95 percent. Or if youre caught in meeting lots of whats going lentils wasnt eligible in the 1st place. For new selves. Recycling plant opened in 2022 with a capacity to recycle 60000 tons annually, and room to expand the 120000. But theres a reason on using the past tense here, the renew sells and they should meet at a beacon in the industry. It wasnt rewarded for new. So shocking me, filed for bankruptcy in february 2024. Just days before the announcement renew, so told dw, they were recycling far below capacity and fashion brands were hesitant to fully commit to recycle materials. We could be producing a lot more. Tricia kerry is renew sells chief commercial officer. Many of the brands have goals set for circularity, reduction traceability particles, uh, you know, a variety. So its, we are a solution to their poles. Its how quickly do they want to be able to achieve those renew. So partnered with brands like levi has to recycle production waste and include circulars in their products h and then became a shareholder in 2017. It wasnt enough to make the plant profitable in its 1st year for new, so called their bankruptcy, a testament to the lack of leadership in necessary pace of change in the fashion industry. Renew, sol, struggles highlight the challenges facing recyclers. It has been something that has shown most of us work in us has been a relative fixed task. Theresa, dominic research that sustainability management at u. C. L. Existing Business Models in which most of fashion bronze are messed it. They dont really have 40 initiatives night renew, so the did really while the degree 80 to be able to make a while Recycled Materials mean less rely on sun water hungry cotton or oil based synthetics, theyre currently more expensive. The challenges scale. The challenge is really getting it out into the world in a way and at a price point that can compete with version fibers. And so were at a key inflection point. Now. Mechanical recycling has gained the limited foothold in the last decade in innovation on the chemical side means there are lots of companies raising the scale up, but its even profitability before Widespread Adoption is clearly a challenge. Maybe youd also say that we need to be more um, support from the government than public bodies to make these things work. Wait, wait, no, not purely, uh, Business Base um disruption. They might not work and assist them the best i have the conditions we might need to have those by and is that the 1st stages of development . Its not just about getting the recycling technology right. Entire sprawling supply chains have to be adapted to accommodate new materials. Waste needs to be seamlessly collected, sorted and processed in producers and consumers all need to get on board. All of this requires half the investment. An estimated 7000000000 euros would be needed to scale up recycling, hit 20 percent of textile waste in europe by 2030. And while there is plenty of vc cash moving in to be started, renew cell shows, a profit upsets fast in industry, wont recycle out of the kindness of a tart. There isnt enough push from the legislation side to force the industry to actually adopt these materials. So not the investigation require forcing, but if its going to be more expensive material, if its the transition with the houses of the suppliers, the thing in nature, with all the brands, they decided across the board, it really does is a function of inflammation. So have them having access to everything which is not easily done until legislation usually takes it or do you have mandated that by 2025 member countries begin collecting text always separately, just like they do with paper, metal, plastic and glass, which should improve on the 22 percent of waste thats currently gathered. Mirroring proposed legislation in the us b e. U is also building a rule that requires producers to pay for the processing of their tech style. We just we have to ensure that these laws dont just charge the producers for one portion of that has little like just collection. It has to also facilitate the infrastructure for both reuse and recycling and the innovation around that. As it stands, recycling isnt profitable. State actors could also set the tone by adopting targets themselves, recycling for recycling. So it gives the nicest way to go broke really quickly. You know, because every party want you to recycle. Everybody wants you to solve the consumption built for us to be successful as a recycler, we have to have committee that takes and thats where government and private enterprise has a role to apply. In saying that a government the chicks is very large procures of products. 70 percent of text or recycling is currently mechanical, but that looks likely to change things to all the new chemical recycling companies. Im a seem really boosting are recycling rates depends on changing the industries whole infrastructure. But just adding a couple of new technologies. Things are currently so diary that recycling just 10 percent of global text always seems nearly youve toby get and this will still just be a drop in the bucket if we keep producing and singing the amounts of clothing. Which depressing spoiler alert is projected to actually increase in the coming years. Recycling is the only one part of the problem of a current consumption backend of cannot continue if you want to move to what the most sustainable to investigate. There is a huge amount of over production in the industry and to whoever is responsible for that. Its just a lot of the debated on that. Bottom line is that a little production needs to, to, to, to use that 100000000000 garments reproduce each year, means 14 for everyone in the world. If we can convince fashion victims to stop buying their body weight, including at least we can insure that as much as possible of what they purchase is recycled. Well, ive done my part by having 0 pass and cents and Walking Around and around the old t shirts. What do you think i can do recycling technologies help save the textile industry, or is it totally down to us consumers . Thanks a lot. And dont forget to subscribe. Weve got new videos for you every friday. The actually right guides know the way around the is strictly scientific truth, some pretty cheap places. Curiosity is we tried tomorrow today next on d w because hes got any issues with a lot say what crazy. The whole life on earth is based on a versatile chemical elements carbon, depending on how its adams bond to each other. It can be as hard as diamonds or soft as graphite. When carbon bonds with oxygen, it becomes gaseous. World wide. Its these Carbon Dioxide emissions that we need to reduce. Thats because the colorless and photo lift gas is considered the main cause of global warming. And that is the 2nd weather patterns everywhere, from the polar forest in the north, to the amazon in the south. The many phases of carbon coming up on tomorrow today