DYERECYCLE – Materials and Longevity

DyeRecycle offers a unique low-cost circular model to extract, recover and recycle dyes from textile waste via selective decolourization of coloured waste fibres. The process uses green chemical solvent to selectively extract the dyes from the fibres, leaving the decoloured fibre as a clean, dye-free input for mechanical/chemical fibre recyclers. The dye-rich chemical can be used as a dye bath to colour a new fabric, alternatively the dye can be recovered from the solvent and sold as a commodity. This is the first technology to introduce the novel concept of recycled synthetic dyes. Recycling existing dyes enable providing wide variety of vibrant colours that meet market demand while maintaining industry standards. DyeRecycle technology have key positive climate impact providing 75% reductions in GHG and 80% less energy demand emissions compared to conventional water-based dyeing for polyester according to our third-party verified LCA case study. Our competitive USP as majority of sustainable dyeing methods have very limited or pale colour palette. The chemical is recycled and reused in in the process with >99% recovery rate. The process has been demonstrated in lab-scale using 32 fabric materials sent by partners or post-consumers. Kg-scale production of the recycled dyestuff is currently manufactured in 20-L reactors and testing with textile mills. In the next year, DyeRecycle aims to validate the use of the technology as a plug-in solution using existing industrial dyeing reactors producing to produce a co-branded capsule collection with a fashion retailer and demonstrate key technology steps (i.e. solvent recovery/recycle) at industrially relevant-scale (Fig. 1).