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Fibre-to-Fibre Recycling in Textiles: Strategies, Limitations and Industrial Perspectives
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This review analyzes fibre-to-fibre textile recycling strategies for cotton, polyester, viscose, polyamide, and wool, identifying feedstock heterogeneity, fibre blending, and quality degradation as the main barriers to scaling circular textile systems. Improving textile recycling is directly relevant to microplastic pollution, as synthetic textile fibres—particularly polyester—are among the largest sources of microplastic fibre release into wastewater and the environment.
Textile-to-textile recycling is increasingly recognised as essential to reduce the environmental footprint of the textile sector, yet fibre-to-fibre routes remain constrained by complex composition of fibre blends, chemical finishes and the degradation of fibre quality during repeated processing. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recycling strategies for major textile fibres, cotton, polyester, viscose, polyamide, and wool, from a fibre-level perspective, highlighting the relationships between fibre chemistry, structure, and recyclability. Mechanical, chemical, and biological recycling routes are analysed with a particular focus on fibre integrity, yarn and fabric performance, and their suitability for industrial textile applications rather than solely on waste management aspects. The review also examines industrial initiatives and emerging technologies driving the transition towards circular textile systems, critically identifying key barriers such as feedstock heterogeneity, fibre blending, and downcycling. Building on existing review articles on textile recycling, this work synthesises current knowledge on fibre-to-fibre routes, compares different process options in terms of recycled-fibre quality and scalability, and highlights remaining technological and implementation gaps. To advance textile circularity, integrated recycling frameworks are proposed that align material design, process optimisation, and policy instruments. This work contributes a cross-disciplinary understanding of how fibre-level innovation can enable resource-efficient, closed-loop textile production, offering a roadmap for future sustainable materials engineering in industrial textile systems.
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Textile Waste Recycling: Emerging Technologies, Environmental Challenges, and Sustainable Solutions
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This review synthesizes current knowledge on textile waste recycling, covering mechanical, chemical, and biological recycling technologies alongside environmental challenges and sustainability trade-offs. The authors highlight microfiber shedding and hazardous dye contamination as key barriers to effective textile circularity, and identify emerging solutions including enzymatic processing and closed-loop fiber-to-fiber recycling.
From Waste to Value: Advances in Recycling Textile-Based PET Fabrics
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This review examines recent advances in recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET) textile fabrics, with a focus on fiber-to-fiber regeneration as a path toward circular textile production. Researchers found that chemical depolymerization methods show particular promise for recovering high-purity monomers suitable for making new textile-grade PET, potentially reducing textile waste that contributes to microplastic pollution.
Synthetic dyes: a barrier to circular economy within the textile industry?
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This review found that synthetic dyes embedded in textiles are a major barrier to fiber-to-fiber recycling because dye removal is chemically complex, generates hazardous byproducts, and can itself release microplastic fibers and toxic solvents. Life-cycle analyses of recycled textiles show inconsistent environmental benefits, partly because the recycling process creates new pollution. The authors argue that designing clothes without synthetic dyes from the outset would dramatically improve the environmental performance of the fashion industry's growing circular economy ambitions.
Impact of Chemicals and Processing Treatments on Thermo-Mechanical Recycling of Polyester Textiles
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This review examines how the hundreds of chemicals used in polyester textile production — from dyes to flame retardants — can either accelerate or resist degradation during thermo-mechanical recycling, concluding that standardizing and limiting chemical inputs is critical to improving textile-to-textile polyester recycling quality.
Progress of Recycled Polyester in Rheological Performance in Molding, and Economic Analysis of Recycled Fibers in Fashion and Textile Industry
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This review examined the recycling performance of polyester fibers and assessed the economic viability of recycled polyester in the fashion and textile industry. Recycled polyester from PET bottles and textile waste showed acceptable rheological properties for fiber production. Expanding recycled polyester use in fashion reduces the need for virgin plastic and addresses the textile industry's substantial microplastic pollution footprint.
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