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Plastic recycler and packaging manufacturer Pact Group has teamed with textile recycling technology company BlockTexx to develop garment recycling operations for fashion brands and retailers in Australia.
The two Australia-based companies signed a memorandum of understanding to determine the feasibility of creating an end-to-end solution for discarded polyester and cotton-blend clothing. The operation would include collection, sorting and pre-processing used garments, then recycling poly-cotton, polyester and cotton pieces into raw materials. Those materials could then be converted into yarn for new clothing, non-food-grade plastic packaging or other applications.
According to Seamless, an Australian clothing stewardship initiative, the country’s garment industry manufactures and imports around 1.4 billion items of new clothing each year. Most of those items are made with non-renewable materials, and more than half of those garments end up in landfills, accounting for 200,000 metric tons of waste annually.
Pact and BlockTexx each bring specialized expertise in recycling to the collaboration. Through its Retail Accessories division, Pact collects and redistributes used plastic hangers from retail stores to garment and accessory suppliers for reuse or recycling.
“Pact’s existing presence in the global fashion supply chain through our Retail Accessories business enables us to expand our expertise across the garment supply chain beyond just hangers,” said Sanjay Dayal, CEO of Pact. “This initiative with BlockTexx demonstrates our commitment to leading the circular economy through partnerships and collaboration to offer sustainable solutions for our customers.”
Polyester recycling has proved difficult for the fashion industry to take on for several reasons, one being that most clothing containing the material is blended with other fibers such as cotton, making it harder to separate the polyester for recycling. Often, polyester goes through chemical treatments and finishes that can also interfere with recycling.
BlocTexx developed a chemical recycling process for hard-to-recycle polyester and cotton blends, and currently recycles textiles at its facility near Brisbane for use in new clothing and agricultural applications, among other uses.
Through this partnership, the two companies will conduct a feasibility study to assess Australia’s garment collection supply chain, the technical requirements necessary to meet BlockTexx’s recycling process and the suitability of using the resulting recycled raw materials in Pact’s packaging products and other applications. Pact and BlockTexx said they hope to complete that study this year.
“This project aims to accelerate the fashion industry’s shift toward more sustainable products by combining Pact’s capabilities in sustainable retail supply chains with BlockTexx’s textile recycling innovations,” said Adrian Jones, co-founder of BlockTexx. “This could enable businesses in the fashion and textiles sector to transition to more sustainable and circular practices and assist in the reduction of CO-2 emissions and prevent unwearable textiles from going to landfill, both here and overseas.”
