A powder pink evening dress hangs lonely in the corner. The item of clothing sticks out of one of the many wire baskets in which old clothes are collected. The item of clothing looks like new and could still find a new owner, but someone has decided to give it to the old clothing collection.
It’s hard not to be impressed when you find yourself in a meter-high hall full of old clothes. Due to the size of the hall and the sheer amount of fabric, the scene turns into one colorful canvas. Brand new items stick out of the bales, new shoes lie on the floor and here and there there are items that definitely don’t fall under the category of clothing waste, but still end up in the same containers. Fortunately, there are also companies that are committed to solving this problem.
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Sorting, sorting and sorting again: Visit to a Dutch clothing recycling plant
It’s a cold Tuesday morning in Wormerveer, the Netherlands. At the invitation of Brightfiber Textiles and Loop.a life, FashionUnited can take a look at the recycling plant. When they arrive, a truck happens to arrive at the same time and several bales of clothing are later loaded into it. These are the items of clothing that are still “too good” and can be worn again. This is not immediately recycled, but goes to external parties. Because a second life can easily be found for clothes that are not broken or dirty. But before that is even decided, things have to be sorted first.
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The recycling plant consists of several steps. First there is a rough sorting: clothing, shoes, but also electronics and waste are delivered. “People literally put everything in a bag and take it to the collection point,” explains Ellen Mensink from Loop.a life and Brightfiber Textiles during the tour. One of the examples on display that day is a box containing a DVD player. “People think: Waste is waste, right?”
Everything in this part of the process is done by hand, and so the facility employs at least 40 people every day. The longer someone works there, the more often the person develops a specialization. Among other things, there are people who specifically sort a category of clothing because they can quickly see whether an item is still good and suitable for a certain target group or a certain country.
After filtering out the other items and checking that the clothing is not broken or dirty, the item is sorted by the type of clothing. Women’s outerwear, jeans, socks, jackets, and so on. As already mentioned, items that are still clean and intact will not be processed further at this recycling facility. Depending on the product group, they are grouped into bundles that are then sent to other locations within the country, but more often abroad.
Dutch clothing waste: Brightfiber Textiles and Loop.a life want to process residual electricity locally
After much of the sorting is completed, items that can no longer be reused in their current form are sorted. These are forwarded to the Fibersort machine in Wormerveer. Here the process changes from manual work to machine work. For those unfamiliar with the Fibersort machine, this machine scans garments using two different cameras. This determines how a piece of clothing is composed, for example how high the cotton or polyester content is and what color the piece of clothing is. Once this has been recorded, the garment ends up on a conveyor belt that passes various bins. When the garment arrives at the correct location, it is quickly “shot” off the conveyor belt with a blast of air, sending the garment to the other items of the same category and color. By choosing the color and material, the finished fibers are the right color after recycling, so no dyes are needed to produce colored yarns.
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If you think that only items made from a single material can be recycled, you are wrong. “It makes the process easier, but we can also accommodate a certain composition,” says Mensink. For example, a combination of cotton and polyester. As long as all parts have the same ratio, such as 65 percent cotton and 35 percent polyester, fibers and yarns can be made from them again. “Then we simply make yarns from blends,” he says. But when an item is made of multiple materials, it becomes more difficult to find an exact match in composition – and also to get enough volume to ultimately make yarns. “It becomes very difficult for an item with six different raw materials.”
Unfortunately, there are many items left over if the Fibersort machine doesn’t find a match right away. What happens to these parts? At the moment, these materials are still being downcycled, because unfortunately many items of clothing do not make it into the recycling process and end up directly in the trash. Downcycling means that the fibers of the garments are not incorporated back into a new garment, but are used, for example, to fill pillows. Mensink says she wants to process many more material streams with Brightfiber Textiles, hopefully increasing the number of items that find a match in the future.
However, the process in Wormerveer does not stop at sorting. Thanks to the Trimclean, zippers and buttons can also be removed from items. All items that have the correct color and composition are cut into small areas. These areas pass through a detector that uses a metal detector and a camera to filter out the areas with buttons and zippers (because of course not all buttons and zippers are made of metal). This means that only the parts suitable for fiber formation remain. Finally, the fibers are made into new yarn that can be used to make fabrics and new clothing.
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Old clothes: “The problem can also be the solution”
Ellen Mensink and Dhyana van der Phols have made it their mission to tackle the problem of clothing waste. Mensink is originally a business economist and has examined various circular economy models for different industries. When she looked into a circular economy model for the fashion industry, she saw how many waste streams there were. “In every circular chain, waste comes back,” she said. She wanted to do something with this stream, the post-use clothing waste. “The problem can also be the solution,” she says enthusiastically.
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After visiting the recycling plant, it is clear that clothing waste can be recycled into usable and high-quality yarn, but now brands and consumers need to be convinced. That’s why Mensink created the Loop.a life brand, which actually functions as a showcase for textiles made from recycled materials. The brand focuses on working as sustainably as possible. That’s why Loop.a life, for example, chooses to knit with the materials instead of weaving. “Weaving uses more electricity than knitting,” says Mensink. Mensink is also very transparent: “We do not choose items that are made from 100 percent recycled materials, but rather items that are made from 100 percent recycled materials. We process everything we receive.” She also points out that the company has prepared a life cycle analysis for the production process. This allows it to indicate how much CO2 and water is saved for each piece of clothing. This should also be communicated to consumers from 2024.
Loop.a life is also already experimenting with compositions. The brand once started with wool, but a few years ago introduced Cotton2Cotton, which is made from recycled cotton. The brand is now looking for new alternatives for every composition and material. With its collections, Loop.a life wants to show the possible uses of recycled fibers.
Recycling clothing on site: This is possible
Loop.a life is also a brand with which recycling cooperations are entered into. The brand is already working with brands King Louie and State of Art to recycle second-hand items into new knitwear. In this way, brands can leverage Loop.a life’s knowledge and discover new opportunities. This often ignites a flame that encourages labels to do even more for recycling. Loop.a life is therefore always open to new collaborations to further tackle the problem of clothing waste.
Mensink and Van der Phols work with local partners. This sometimes means partners in the Netherlands, but also partners in Europe and Turkey. The system is a completely closed loop – what they receive is what they process. In 2024 it will become even more local – then Mensink will open a circular raw materials factory for fibers from local waste materials with Brightfiber Textiles in Amsterdam. The entrepreneur will ultimately produce 2.5 million kilos of textiles per year in this factory.
If entrepreneurs have their way, the Netherlands will once again have a thriving textile industry in which the waste stream from clothing is used to produce new items. The efforts of Mensink and Van der Pols will certainly have an impact, but now the rest of the industry must follow suit.
This translated article previously appeared on FashionUnited.nl