The benefits of recycling cotton

Cotton recycling: an eco-responsible gesture

Every year, we dispose of tons of clothing. Recycling cotton is therefore a major challenge for the future. It's a real alternative to using virgin cotton.

Recycling is a fast-growing eco-responsible approach.
Recycling allows us to recreate new fabrics and garments without exploiting new natural resources. It's important to sort through your wardrobes regularly. Don't throw your clothes in the garbage can, sell them, donate them to an association or to a recycling center.

The clothes will then be recycled or reused, helping to limit our impact on the environment.

Recycled fiber is produced in several stages.

Cotton recycling takes place in a sorting center. It consists of returning a cotton fabric or garment to its initial state as a raw material: cotton fiber. Old clothes or fabrics are collected and mechanically shredded to return them to their fiber state. The fibers are then twisted into yarn. Finally, the yarn is transformed into fabric, giving it a new lease of life.

The second lives of cotton: recycling, second hand and upcycling

In this ecological period with the climate march that takes place today, we are interested in textile recycling, and more particularly in cotton recycling.

Cotton is the most widely used natural fiber in the world, and as such its production naturally generates impressive effects of scale: it occupies a cultivable area of around 32 million hectares[1], and is often criticized for its water-hungry nature, even in organic farming. What's more, the textile industry and its multiple stages lead to significant losses of raw materials, in the form of scraps and rejects, for example.

But in addition to the non-polluting and natural character of its fibers, cotton, even in its most damaged forms, has many advantages in terms of recycling or direct reuse: brought back to its fibrous state and then spun and woven again, or transformed into natural absorbent cotton, its second lives are multiple and have allowed the emergence of very interesting initiatives to take advantage of textile resources that seem to be worthless.

In this article, we will review the concept of cotton recycling and the different channels that exist to reuse as much as possible the unused or damaged fibers. Here is what we have deconstructed for you!

The recycling of fabric

The fabric is the material obtained after the weaving of textile fibers. It takes the form of large rolls from which coupons are cut in order to start the production of finished textile products. These coupons are usually of standard size, and the fabric pieces are cut out of them, which means that large quantities of fabric are not used. These are the scraps. In factories, they represent between 10 and 20% of the woven material.

It is mainly these scraps that are used to create recycled cotton products, thanks to a recycling process called mechanical. Indeed, the pieces of fabric are crushed, cleaned, and then returned to their initial state: that of fibers. From these fibers, new rolls of fabric are made, which are then transformed to arrive in the market as manufactured products. Moreover, as long as the fibers are in good condition, the operation can be repeated several times to create new rolls! And when the fiber is difficult to re-spin, the cotton can be transformed into natural wadding or insulation material.

The origin of this second life of cotton is the will of weavers and manufacturers to consider cotton scraps not as a waste product of the textile industry, but as a form of raw material. It also has the advantage of appealing to an increasingly wide audience: choosing recycled cotton means using fibers that have already been produced, and thus limiting the pressure on cultivable land.

The different stages in the recycling of cotton

This form of recycling, which takes place after the textile materials have been used by the final consumer, uses other channels than that of industrial cotton waste. Indeed, it is necessary first of all to centralize and sort a textile material whose degree of wear and the composition will be necessarily more diverse than in a factory! It is a step all the more necessary as the quantity of textile to be recovered by this means occupies an impressive volume: indeed, approximately 70% of what we have in our cupboards is not used. So if you haven't worn a piece of clothing for more than a year, maybe it's time to consider an alternative for it!

In France, the company EcoTLC[4] is in charge of collecting used clothing. The principle is simple: drop-off points are distributed throughout the country, generally at the initiative of the municipalities. The textiles deposited in these bins are then sorted according to their quality, composition, condition and color. Those that are not in good enough condition to be reused as is are recycled, following the same recycling process as fabric: they are crushed and cleaned, transformed into textile fibers, rewoven and put back on the market.

Of course, the clothes recovered by EcoTLC are not all made of cotton, and therefore do not all follow the same recycling process: where natural fibers such as cotton, linen or hemp can be crushed using a mechanical process, synthetic fibers are generally recycled using more aggressive chemical processes. Beware of the composition of the solvent baths that facilitate the processing of fibers derived from fossil components!

The second hand market

"You don't wear it? Sell it!" recently trumpeted a poster campaign for Vinted in the French metro system. Another way to give a second life to a piece of clothing in good condition, the second-hand market is indeed rich in initiatives and new economic models: from the classic second-hand store or thrift shop, to the resale application, through collection and donation associations, there are many ways to sell, donate or exchange the clothes and accessories we no longer wear.

In a charitable context, organizations such as Emmaus or the Red Cross are in charge of redistributing clothes in good condition to those in need. But they also organize big auctions open to the public, which allow them to finance their other activities: everyone benefits!

Finally, there are many initiatives that allow you to buy vintage or second-hand clothes at more attractive prices; for example, have you heard of the "nothing new" challenge, organized throughout 2019 by Zero Waste France? The website dedicated to this collective commitment of individuals to reduce their environmental impact lists all the alternatives for buying second-hand textile items: if you're looking for the responsible store of your dreams, go take a look!

Upcycling

The notion ofupcycling emerged in the 1990s as a reaction to traditional recycling practices, which consisted of producing an object of lesser quality than the one from which the material was taken: denigrated and described as downcycling, these channels were accused of transforming recyclable materials in an uncreative manner to produce objects of much lesser perceived value.

On the other hand,upcycling aims to create, from unused or damaged raw materials, objects whose value is superior to the original, by its creative value, its uniqueness, or the preservation of the original quality of the material. On an individual scale, this can be the simple recutting of a pair of jeans whose initial shape was out of fashion; but on a corporate scale, entire collections can be made from it: for example, the Petit h collections of Hermès[6 ] are entirely constructed from the surplus material they have, so as to create unique and rare products, whose perceived value is thus all the greater!

In the case of cotton, practicingupcycling would mean, for example, transforming fabrics or finished products without going through a mechanical grinding stage again, so as to minimize the loss of quality of textile fibers. In this regard, initiatives such as Les Récupérables are worth mentioning: this fashion brand committed to the circular economy recovers rolls of unused fabric or fabric with defects from various partners to create its clothing collections. An old-fashioned curtain fabric or a stock of unsold linen can thus be transformed into a lovely printed dress!

And what about Les Mouettes Vertes, in all this?

As a natural material that avoids micro-particle pollution and can be recycled even when damaged, organic cotton fiber appeared to us as an ecological solution and as the bearer of new economic and solidarity practices. This is why we work mainly with cotton, in all its forms, including recycled!

We also place great importance on inventory management and do our utmost to optimize our material consumption, for example by slightly adapting the dimensions of a bag to minimize waste; as for items with defects, they are reused as an ecological packaging solution in our offices, or donated to associations that make the most of them, such as La Recyclerie.

What if you too gave a second life to your textiles?