However, the method might be troublesome to scale, says Bryan Vogt, a chemical engineer at Penn State College, who was not concerned within the examine. That’s as a result of the solvent used to interrupt down polyester is dear and troublesome to recuperate after use. Additional, based on Andini, regardless that BHET is well turned again into clothes, it’s much less clear what to do with the leftover fibers. Nylon might be particularly tough, as the material is degraded considerably by the staff’s chemical recycling approach.
“We’re chemical engineers, so we consider this course of as a complete,” says Andini. “Hopefully, as soon as we’re in a position to get pure parts from every half, we are able to rework them again into yarn and make garments once more.”
Andini, who simply obtained a fellowship for entrepreneurs, is growing a marketing strategy to commercialize the method. Within the coming years, she goals to launch a startup that may take the garments recycling approach out of the lab and into the actual world. That might be a big step towards lowering the big quantities of textile waste in landfills. “It’ll be a matter of getting the capital or not,” she says, “however we’re engaged on it and excited for it.”
