Turning Old Clothes Into New Clothes

I'll admit it: I am a bit of a hoarder. When searching through my wardrobe earlier in the week for an outfit to wear, I came across a skirt I bought over 20 years ago! I suppose fashion trends come and go and so holding on to old clothes like this and reusing them may be one way to avoid textile waste from accumulating in landfill or being incinerated. However, given how fast-paced the fashion industry is, real solutions for dealing with textile waste are urgently needed. I was therefore pleased to read about Project Re:claim, which is working to adapt existing technology for recycling plastic bottles to reprocess polyester textiles.

Project Re:claim, which is based in Kettering in Northamptonshire, is a collaboration between charity The Salvation Army and recycling specialist Project Plan B. Polyester items from the charity's sorting centre are processed in a heat extrusion process, which reduces the polyester textiles into rPET pellets. The pellets are then