Tex2Mat: Recycling of industrial PA textiles to fibres and injection moulded parts

The project Tex2Mat is a cooperation of several manufacturing companies and uni-versities. In the course of the project two waste streams from textile companies were analysed, one was textiles made from a mixture of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and cotton and the second one was a mixture of polyamides (PA). In this subproject regarding the PA the following members were selected in a way that all processing steps were represented along the complete value chain. The main objective the project was to analyse the whole value chain from the loom to collecting the waste, the recycling process and the production of the original product or other technical demanding products.

by Holzer, Clemens; and Jenull-Halver, Uta

The European Union’s legal requirements regarding circular economy set a big challenge on the Austrian textile industry, which is dominated by SMEs. It is interesting to notice that "textile industry” does not necessarily mean clothes for hu-mans but there are also manufacturers who produce technical textiles like sieves and felts for the paper and cement industry. These textiles have a complex structure and are made from various polymers. In order to avoid landfill and high costs for disposal recycling becomes a must. The project Tex2Mat aimed at connecting innovative companies and universities in order to develop recycling strategies for specially selected use cases (monofilaments and injection moulded parts for technical applications). In three case studies the partners developed a sound procedure for waste collection and recycling to ensure a constant quality and a reliable supply of recycling material. The Austrian industry profits from that project with knowhow for securing Austria as a pro-duction location, reducing the costs of raw material as well as CO2 emission. 

Get full article here [external link]

---

published: Recy & DepoTech, 11|2020
Keywords: Material Recovery