One step closer to a sustainable future – Why old clothing recycling is so important

At WeeDo, we're proud that the proportion of recycled clothing fibers in our snowsuits from the AW24 season has reached 55%. This is a fantastic development toward more sustainable textile production and thus a better future for our children. With continued exceptional and vibrant designs and a generous dose of innovation, we want to make the world a little more colorful, imaginative, and sustainable. Demand for recycled polyester is rising rapidly, but supply can't keep pace. It should be clear to everyone by now that we need to recycle more than just PET bottles. We're utilizing this abundant raw material and, for the first time, using textile waste to produce new products. Protecting the environment while maintaining consistent quality not only makes sense, it's also fun.

What is the problem?

"In 2015, the fashion industry generated 92 million tons of textile waste from around the world."

Demand for recycled polyester is rising rapidly, but supply can't keep pace. We need to recycle more than just PET bottles. There's enough raw material we can use from all this textile waste.

What is the solution?

CHEMICAL METHOD FOR THE RECYCLING PROCESS OF OLD CLOTHING FABRICS

This process transforms recycled used clothing into a quality compatible with that of virgin polyester. The quality is unaltered. Users don't have to worry about the problems of recycling other materials, such as dyeing. It is often misunderstood that "chemical recycling" involves the use of hazardous chemicals. The RENU Chemical Recycled Polyester process meets the requirements of OEKO-TEX® Standard 100, currently defined in Annex 4. Chemical recycling involves breaking down the polymer chains of plastic waste through chemical reactions.

What are the advantages of chemical recycling?

The chemical recycling technology used by RENU enables the reprocessing of textile waste into new, compatible and high-quality recycled materials - some of the key advantages of chemically recycled polyester:

RENU's chemical recycling technology is another step towards a sustainable future.

Source: "ForP&E Introduction to RENU Projects" by ITOCHU TEXTILE CHINA 2022