Reinventing Home Furnishing Textile through Recycling

As surprising as it may sound, the urban waste comprises of a substantial amount of textile wastes, which usually comes from the end-consumers. While there are certain commercial as well as charity organisations that come forward and take up some part of this waste, but the better part of it is still discarded. It is dues to the unending burden of this waste, that new possibilities are being tapped so as to make it commercially viable.

One such possibility is that of recycling. And what better than to use the recycled material in home furnishing textiles , which has an ever increasing requirement of raw material. However, it is a matter of few years before the process of recycling comes in its full swing and become economically profitable. One of the major aspects of the recycling process is the sorting of materials at a large scale. A large number of software in this regard are being developed and tested so as to aid this taxing process, by sorting the waste on the basis of colour, texture and chemical composition. After which, the sorted textiles can further be used in manufacturing high-end products.

In the modern day textile sector, a large number of textile recovery facilities are at work, whereby they sort out the overly stained and spoiled garments from the ones that are in a better state. While certain materials are turned into wiping or polishing cloths pertaining to their extremely poor quality, others such as cotton are used to make a special component which comes in handy in the making of a new high quality-paper. Knitted wools are literally pulled off to obtain the original fibres which are then used to manufacture insulations for cars, stuffing for cushions etc. Almost all types of fabrics are generally processed in an attempt to obtain the fibres. For fibres that are of superior quality high-end applications such as making upholstery and other home furnishing textiles are usually obtained. The process of obtaining add-on items such as buttons, brooches, zippers and belts, is also widely practiced as a part of recycling.

100% natural materials such as cotton yarn are often forwarded as compost. It is believed that if the process of recycling reaches its zenith, only as little as 5% of the entire textile waste will need to dumped, while the rest will all be put to good use.

This being said, it will be a more than welcome change when the reinvention of home furnishing textile will actually, in the truest sense, be brought about by the tedious yet impeccable process of recycling. Needless to say, when practiced on a larger scale, the process of recycling of textiles will help a great deal in making the planet a better place to live on.