Polycotton waste textile recycling by sequential hydrolysis and glycolysis.

ABSTRACT: As a result of the current high throughput of the fast fashion collections and the concomitant decrease in product lifetime, we are facing enormous amounts of textile waste. Since textiles are often a blend of multiple fibers (predominantly cotton and polyester) and contain various different components, proper waste management and recycling are challenging. Here, we describe a high-yield process for the sequential chemical recycling of cotton and polyester from mixed waste textiles. The utilization of 43 wt% hydrochloric acid for the acid hydrolysis of polycotton (44/56 cotton/polyester, room temperature, 24 h) results in a 75% molar glucose yield from the cotton fraction, whereafter the hydrolysate solution is easily separated from the solid polyester residue. The reaction is scalable, as

SUBMITTER: Leenders N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11779930 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature