Regenerative Technology: Processing Post-Consumer Denim Waste into a High-quality Fibre Feedstock for Chemical Recycling

只有不到1%的衣服被回收制成新衣服，其中73%被送往垃圾填埋场或焚烧，其余的被重新用于价值较低的用途：隔热材料、床垫填充和工业清洁服装(Ellen_MacArthur_Foundation_2017)。时尚业需要迅速创新方法，识别不容易回收的消费后废弃纺织材料。我们不能继续从我们的自然界中寻找原料；我们需要将纺织废料视为一种资源，通过回收材料来结束棉花生产的循环。安娜·福斯特是E.L.V.牛仔布的创始人兼创意总监，也是一位著名的时尚造型师。她在20岁出头就开始造型术，与众多著名摄影师、模特和名人合作，目前是澳大利亚杂志RUSSH.E.L.V.的时尚总监。丹宁是一个100%上行循环的牛仔品牌，环境可持续性和社会责任是我们公司的核心。我们将废弃的旧牛仔裤升级为现代、复杂的设计，只用了7L水就能生产出一双新的(联合国估计)10000升的水。三年前推出的Anna Foster已经建立了一个国际库存的品牌，得到了英国时尚协会的支持，并被公认为时尚界循环经济的关键参与者。E.L.V.牛仔与伦敦东部当地的黑马Lane Atelier工作室合作，拥有经过验证的社会可持续发展政策。所有生产都在伦敦东部方圆5英里的范围内进行，确保最大限度地减少碳足迹，并支持当地社区。我们现在为客户提供修复和回收现有E.L.V.牛仔裤的服务，这是实现完全循环战略的第一步，最终目标是利用消费后牛仔废料创造出新的再生纤维，结束每个人衣柜中最受欢迎的产品之一。安娜的愿景是充分利用我们在采购过程中遇到的每一双后消费牛仔裤，并最好地利用我们少量的剪裁。我们将回收英国不受欢迎的牛仔废料，生产高质量、低冲击的牛仔纤维，在新纱线和纺织品的生产过程中取代纯棉纤维。这将增加目前有问题的废流的价值。我们将从纤维层面开始这种方法，通过对一系列分类的牛仔纤维类型进行化学分析，并测试化学处理方法。这最终将允许更高质量的原料细分，使材料到材料的回收本地化，并在英国建立强大的当地纺织和废物专业知识和基础设施。

Less than 1% of clothing is recycled into new clothing, with 73% headed to landfill or incineration and the remainder being repurposed into lower-value applications: insulation, mattress stuffing and industrial cleaning clothes (Ellen_MacArthur_Foundation_2017).The fashion industry needs to rapidly innovate ways to identify post-consumer waste textile materials that are not easily recycled. We simply cannot continue looking at our natural world for feedstocks; we need to view textile waste as a resource and close the loop on cotton production by recovering materials.Anna Foster is Founder and Creative Director of E.L.V. DENIM and a renowned fashion stylist. She began styling in her early twenties, worked with an acclaimed list of photographers, models, and celebrities and is currently Fashion Director-at-Large at Australian magazine RUSSH.E.L.V. Denim is a 100% up-cycled denim brand, with environmental sustainability & social responsibility at the heart of our company. We up-cycle old discarded denim into modern, sophisticated designs, using only 7L of water to produce vs 10,000L for a new pair (UN estimate). Launched 3 years ago, Anna Foster has built a brand that is internationally stocked, supported by the British Fashion Council and recognised as a key player in fashion's circular economy.E.L.V. DENIM works with Blackhorse Lane Atelier, a local East London atelier with a proven social sustainability policy. All production takes place within a 5-mile radius in East London, ensuring minimal carbon footprint and supporting local communities. We are now offering our customers the service to repair and recycle their existing E.L.V. DENIM jeans, the first step in a strategy to become fully circular, the final goal to create a new regenerative fibre out of post-consumer denim waste, closing the loop on one of the most popular items in every person's wardrobe.Anna's vision is to fully utilise every pair of post-consumer denim we come across during sourcing and best utilise our small amount of off-cuts. We will recycle undesirable denim waste in the UK into high-quality low-impact denim fibre, replacing virgin cotton fibres in the manufacturing process of new yarns and textiles. This will add value to a currently problematic waste stream.We will start this approach at fibre level, by chemically analysing an array of sorted denim fibre types and testing chemical processing methodologies. This will ultimately allow for a higher quality segmentation of feedstock, localising material-to-material recovery and building strong local textile and waste expertise and infrastructure in the UK.