Nonetheless, the method could possibly 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 pricey and troublesome to get better after use. Additional, in accordance with Andini, although BHET is definitely turned again into clothes, it’s much less clear what to do with the leftover fibers. Nylon could possibly be particularly difficult, as the material is degraded considerably by the workforce’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 will remodel them again into yarn and make garments once more.”
Andini, who simply acquired a fellowship for entrepreneurs, is creating a marketing strategy to commercialize the method. Within the coming years, she goals to launch a startup that can take the garments recycling approach out of the lab and into the true world. That could possibly be a big step towards lowering the massive 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.”