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

只有不到1%的服装被回收制成新服装，73%被填埋或焚烧，其余的被重新用于低价值应用：绝缘材料、床垫填充物和工业清洁服（Ellen_MacArthur_Foundation_2017）。时尚行业需要快速创新方法，以识别消费后不易回收的废弃纺织材料。我们不能再继续将自然界视为原料;我们需要将纺织废料视为一种资源，并通过回收材料来关闭棉花生产的循环。安娜福斯特是E. L. V. DENIM的创始人兼创意总监，也是著名的时尚造型师。她从二十出头开始设计，与众多摄影师、模特和名人合作，目前是澳大利亚杂志RUSSH的时尚总监。E. L. V. Denim是一个100%升级循环的牛仔品牌，我们公司的核心是环境可持续性和社会责任。我们将废弃的旧牛仔布升级循环为现代、精致的设计，生产只需7升水，而生产一双新牛仔布则需要10，000升水（联合国估计）。安娜福斯特创立于3年前，已经建立了一个国际化的品牌，得到了英国时装理事会的支持，并被公认为时尚循环经济的关键参与者。E. L. V. DENIM与当地东伦敦的一家工作室Blackhorse Lane Atelier合作，该工作室拥有经过验证的社会可持续发展政策。所有生产都在东伦敦5英里半径内进行，确保最小的碳足迹并支持当地社区。我们现在为客户提供维修和回收现有E. L. V. DENIM牛仔裤的服务，这是实现完全循环战略的第一步，最终目标是从消费后的牛仔布废料中创造出一种新的再生纤维，为每个人衣橱里最受欢迎的单品之一画上句号。安娜的愿景是充分利用每一双后-我们在采购过程中遇到的消费牛仔布，最好地利用我们的少量边角料。我们将回收英国不受欢迎的牛仔布废料，制成高品质低冲击牛仔布纤维，在新纱线和纺织品的制造过程中取代原始棉纤维。这将为目前存在问题的废物流增加价值。我们将从纤维层面开始这一方法，通过化学分析一系列已分类的牛仔布纤维类型，并测试化学处理方法。这将最终实现更高质量的原料细分，实现材料到材料回收的本地化，并在英国建立强大的本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.