Polyester Upcycling and
Fiber Composite Furniture
Polyester is a market leader in the textile industry. While fast fashion trends, large amounts ofpolyester waste is generated. As a non-biodegradable material, whether incinerated into
carcinogenic compounds or piled up at landfills, polyester threatens the health of our entire
ecosystem. Efforts promoting sustainable fashion have not demonstrated measurable success.
Waste generation is not the only problem. Polyester production is unsustainable as it ispredominately created from polyethylene terephthalate: a material produced from fossil fuels.
Additionally, polyester manufacturing involves combining dyes and other chemicals. Improper
management and containment of these additives can lead to water and soil pollution affecting
nearby communities [1]. In the entire production process, up to 27.2 kg CO2 equivalent can beproduced per one kg of polyester fabric [1].

Fig. 1: Polyester step-by-step manufacturing process [1].

While there are existing technologies to recycle polyester, there are significant challenges thatprevent recycling from being a viable solution:
As of 2021, recycled polyester only holds 15% of market share [2].
Textiles in fast fashion have a short lifecycle that leads to a high frequency of recycling.
Recycling is energy-intensive and not cost-effective.
Contamination and impurity make recycling even more challenging.

Instead, what if we approach the way
we think about polyester waste differently?
Advay Sudarshan | Patrick Harsono | Jesse Wei | Hugo Ji
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Solution
Fast fashion brings more polyester waste than the world1.

has ever seen before.
While industry and market

Improvements in manufacturing process and recycling

trends change, waste

technologies may alleviate the waste load, but suchmanagement and recycling

progress is not guaranteed.

processes cannot keep up with

Approaching this issue with traditional recycling

changes in wasted material.

methods would simply lead to more energy consumption

2.
Long-lifecycle markets tend to be overlooked from asustainability perspective.

Moving existing waste fromFor example, the furniture market sees longer productshort-lifecycle markets into

lifecycles and thus a lower waste and recycling frequency.

markets with longer lifecycle

Utilizing waste from short-lifecycle markets in production ofcan reduce new material

long-lifecycle markets reduces total new material demand.

demands.

3.
Consequently, we can reduce
the usage of virgin nonbiodegradable materials infurniture by replacing themwith robust composites madeOur solution addresses unsustainable production. It will:
Reduce the production of new non-biodegradable
materials in furniture.
Obtain more use out of existing polyester by shifting theuse across markets within the textile sector.

up of the polyester waste.

Our solution’s impact on industry infrastructure is twofold:
Replace non-biodegradable materials in furniture by
repurposing otherwise unusable polyester waste.
Divert away from frequent polyester recycling - anenergy intensive process.

Advay Sudarshan | Patrick Harsono | Jesse Wei | Hugo Ji
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Implementation

We need the textile industry to play their part to use more sustainable natural fibers for their products tomake this solution more effective.
A heightened demand is created for polyester recycling in the medium term as a result of this approach.
The end goal is that the furniture industry has access to more sustainable raw materials while enabling asustainable and gradual removal of polyester from an industry with a short product life cycle

References and Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Prof. Jeff Baur for his guidance and expertise for this competition.
[1] Palacios-Mateo et. al. “Analysis of the polyester clothing value chain to identify key intervention points for sustainability”. Springer
Open, January 2021. https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-020-00447-x[2] “Recycled and conventional polyester fiber as share of total production worldwide from 2008 to 2021”. October 2022.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1250998/global-share-recycled-polyesterfiber/#:~:text=Recycled%20and%20conventional%20polyester%20production%20share%20worldwide%202008%2D2021&text=In%202008%2C%20around%20eight%20percent,had%20increased%20to%2015%20percent.
[3] Gowda et. al. “Polymer matrix-natural fiber composites: An overview”. March 2018.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311916.2018.1446667#:~:text=3.-,Thermoset%20based%20natural%20fiber%20composites,into%20fibers%20at%20low%20pressures

Advay Sudarshan | Patrick Harsono | Jesse Wei | Hugo JiUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign