# Opportunities and Limitations in Recycling Fossil Polymers from Textiles
## Recycling Fossil Polymers
### Chemical Recycling to Obtain Separated Materials, Monomers or New Products
A certain number of commercial initiatives concerning the recycling of blended textiles, mainly cotton/PET, which is highly abundant in waste, (Table 1) and several European projects (Table 2) about this topic have been reported. The analysis of these sources (industrial initiatives and European projects) are evidence of a strong activity of companies and research centers, also involving actors of the waste management chains, regarding textile chemical recycling. Due to the presence of mixed polymers in recovered and sorted textiles, chemical recycling methodologies often combine separation with the possibility of upcycling the materials, throughout the production of specialty chemicals that otherwise will be produced from freshly extracted oil. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Company and** & **Input Stream** & **Technology** & **Product** & **Milestones and References** \\ \hline  & & & 2021—Denim supplier ISKO gets a Green Machine from Turkive. A consortium of actors in the textile sector, including GLZ, VF Corp and Dakota, join forces to launch a feasibility study to deploy The Green Machine in Cambodia by 2022. \\ HKRTTA/H\&M & Cotton/ PET & separation of polyester fibres to make new textile and a cellulose powder & Good-quality polyester fibres to make new textile & Indonesia, places the first order of the Green Machine. Fashion brand Monki releases the first collection made from the Green Machine technology. A pilot on cotton farming using the pollulose powder (one of the outputs from the Green Machine) is initiated in India. 2018—A pre-industrial-sized system opened in Tai Po, Hong Kong: brands and stakeholders were invited to test and implement this technology within their own operations [144]. \\ \hline  & Cotton/ & Closed-loop solvent system able to & 31 May 2022—Worn Again \\ Worm-again & PET from non-reusable & decontaminate, separate and extract polyester and cellulose & PET and cellulosic & Technologies announces plans to build a new textile recycling demo plant in Winterthur, Switzerland [146] \\ \hline Sodra with Once & Cotton/ & & Cellulose pulp for & 3 June 2022—production capacity of \\ More [147] & PET & & textile & OnceMore® rising to 6000 tonnes \\ \hline  & & Heat and & & 14 July 2022—Marubeni America \\ Circ, Inc (formerly, & & pressure-based & Cellulose and PET & Corporation, has made additional \\ TYTON BioSciences & & hydrothermal & monomers & investment in Circ, Inc. (formerly, \\ LLC) [148] & & technology & TYTON BioSciences LLC) [149], that has developed methods for recycling cotton and polyester fibres from waste textiles. \\ \hline  & & & 16 August 2021—Australian start-up \\  & & & BlockTexx has acquired a site at Logan, Queensland, and it was working on the final design for the plant. \\ Block Texx [150] & Cotton/ & Cellulose pulp and PET & BlockTexx says production will begin in 2022, using the company’s proprietary Separation of Fibre Technology (SOFT) solution, at the plant which will recycle around 4000 tonnes of textiles in its first year [151]. \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Commercial initiatives related to chemical recycling of cotton/PET.