ABSTRACT
In a circular economy fibre-to-fibre recycling methods can be used to reduce the amount of virgin fibres used for the production of textiles by using recycled fibres. Mechanical recycling refers to a relatively simple method of unravelling textile structure into fibres which can be used for yarn spinning. The main drawback of this process is that fibre quality is lower than the original. Thermo-mechanical and chemical recycling methods regenerate fibre, or even polymer structure, enabling restoration of quality, and thus providing a route for upcycling low-quality textiles. However, with more processing, care must be taken to make sure that processes are sustainable.
