Textile waste has several pathways but only a few become new fibres
NewRetex is a Danish company operating a textile sorting facility in Bjerringbro. The company’s technology receives textile waste and sorts it for mechanical recycling. Mechanical recycling is the process of recycling fibres through mechanical processes without the use of chemicals.
NewRetex has been developing its operations over several years, evolving from a start-up through a pilot facility to a fully operational plant.
The Bjerringbro facility currently receives 2,500 tonnes of textile waste per year and has a capacity of 3,300 tonnes with its single sorting line. The line is fed with textile waste that is not suitable for reuse, and NIR scanners sort the textiles according to colour and fibre content. The primary materials sorted are cotton and cotton/polyester blends.
NewRetex currently sorts the textiles into 31 fractions, while the technology on the line is capable of identifying 59 fractions. This means that the sorting can be adjusted according to market demand. NewRetex highlights that one advantage of the facility is the low level of noise and dust generated by the process, which contributes to a better working environment by avoiding the need to blow the textiles apart during sorting.
NewRetex has also commissioned tests of yarns, fabrics and other textile products to assess how recycled textile fibres can be used in new products and to evaluate their quality. In addition, the company sells its sorting technology to other countries.
According to NewRetex, around 20% of the received material can be sorted for mechanical fibre-to-fibre recycling.
A further 20% could potentially be recycled through chemical recycling, while 40% of the textile waste is rejected because it is not suitable for reuse or recycling.
This may be because the material is wet or contaminated, consists of multilayer textiles, or is otherwise unsuitable for recycling.
Today, NewRetex collaborates with half of Denmark’s municipalities on textile waste.
NewRetex has also expanded its activities to cover a larger part of the value chain and has, for the past three years, manually sorted textiles suitable for reuse so that they do not end up in the recycling stream.
Reuse ranks higher in the waste hierarchy, and there is therefore an obligation to seek to reuse textiles that can be reused. Reusable textiles also generally have a positive economic value within the textile waste stream.
The visit to NewRetex was part of the Nordic PRO collaboration, in which we work across Denmark, Norway and Sweden to prepare the best possible framework for the treatment of textile waste under extended producer responsibility.