Recycling of high performance and smart textiles

Abstract

Textile fibre production has been increasing in the last ten years from 59 to 85 million tons a year. The increase in fibre production, on one hand, is the result of global population growth and living standard improvement, and on the other hand, the result of the fact that today industrialized and developed societies use textile for a wide range of products other then clothing such as different types of vehicles, sports and protective equipment, and the textile fibers, like fibre reinforced composites, are increasingly being used as structural materials (geomembrane, reinforced concrete etc.). The consequence of all this is the textile waste increase and the need for its adequate disposal. Although the best way of textile waste disposal is recycling, in reality, the appropriate disposal of textile waste is much more complex than it seems to be. This applies especially to the advanced textile engineering or structure materials based on textiles such as high performance (HP) and smart materials (SM). This paper gives an overview of the possibilities of recycling and reuse of high performance and smart textiles the recycling of which is extremely complex, difficult, expensive and sometimes impossible. It is expected that in the future, through education and environmental awareness, sustainable production of new textiles together with finding adequate models of their recycling will reduce textile waste, save energy, preserve the environment and human health. In order to achieve this it is necessary that the principles of ecodesign or green design (design for recycling and design from recycling), are incorporated in design of modern textiles.