Environmental impacts of chemically recycling flame retardant cotton textile

Abstract

Vast environmental impacts from the textile sector have created needs for various circularity practices like sustainable recycling. However, one of the main causes hindering efficient recycling of textile waste is the presence of chemical residues as they are often unwanted in the recycled material and removing them requires additional treatment. One example of a challenging textile waste flow is workwear that is impregnated with sturdy chemical finishes. In this article, we study how a flame retardant chemical finish in workwear affects the environmental efficiency of recycling. Through life cycle assessment, we evaluate the environmental impacts of chemically recycling the textile in scenarios where the chemical is either retained or removed from the material. These recycling scenarios are compared against a scenario of energy recovery through textile waste incineration. According to the results, the removal scenario causes the highest environmental burden, even surpassing the impacts of energy recovery. Recycling the material without chemical removal is the preferred option from an environmental viewpoint. However, due to technology immaturity and speculative substitution assumptions, the uncertainty of the results is high. The results demonstrate the importance of assessing recycling impacts before adoption and highlight the need for designing the products with less permanent chemicals. They also underline the potential of closed loop recycling, which, however, can be challenging to implement in practice.