Textile Recycling Technologies, Colouring and Finishing Methods

SaXcell 
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Post-consumer 
cotton waste 
Regenerated virgin 
cellulose. Colouring 
may be carried out at 
fibre, yarn, or fabric 
levels. 
Cotton textile waste sorted into well-
defined waste stream. The waste is 
grinded, with removal of non-textile 
components, followed by chemical 
decolourization. Wet spinning is 
performed according to the viscose or 
lyocell processes.
 

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3.4 Wool 
3.4.1 Summary 
Wool is a natural animal protein fibre that grows on sheep (other sources: goats, llamas etc.). The 
protein fibre is known as keratin. Wool exhibits many favourable properties in apparel, consumer 
products, as well as industrial textile applications. Wool has favourable thermal comfort properties, 
being breathable, warm, and moisture wicking. It is easily dyed and requires less washing than 
other fibres.
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The relatively long fibre length of wool makes it well suited for mechanical 
recycling.
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Wool accounts for up to 5% by weight of total clothing donated for recycling and 
reuse.
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Wool recycling has been practiced for over 200 years, with several options for its reuse, 
and is considered as one of the most re-used fibres.
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 The production stages from fibre to garment, 
along with recycling flows during process steps are outlined in Figure 20. 
Figure 20: Overview of wool fibre processing steps with recycling flows of post-industrial and post-
consumer waste. 
Reproduced and modified from [109,110]. 
3.4.2 Wool Recovery and Recycling 
Wool textile waste is processed from both post-industrial (pre-consumer) and post-consumer 
materials. The textile waste recovered from manufacturing process (post-industrial) following 
closed-loop steps in which waste is continuously fed into different processing steps (Figure 20).
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Wool textile recycling is applied in commercially practiced open loop and closed loop mechanical 
processes. While chemical recycling of wool is not performed, there have been many research 
developments into recovery processes of keratin from pre- and post-consumer waste wool for other 
value-added applications. 

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