The FIBREC project will develop industrializable processes for the pretreatment, sorting, and recycling of complex polyester and polycotton textile fractions, using mechanical and chemical techniques, for their valorization and reintroduction into the value chain.

Context

The expansion of the fast fashion model has led to an exponential increase in the production and consumption of textile products, resulting in a significant accumulation of fibrous waste, with annual growth rates of 5 to 10%. This situation has highlighted the urgent need to develop technical solutions to recover and valorize this waste. Despite selective collection efforts, only a fraction of textile waste is reused or exported; the rest ends up in landfills or incinerators due to the difficulty of recycling heterogeneous materials with high levels of non-recyclable elements.

In addition, waste deposited in general containers or recycling points is not always subject to sorting processes, leading to a loss of recyclable resources and a lack of traceability. This situation is further exacerbated by the increasing complexity of global supply chains, which has intensified the need for local sources of raw materials such as recycled polyester—a viable alternative to imported virgin polymer.

The FIBREC project emerges as a response to these challenges, aiming to create new valorization pathways to transform textile waste into valuable resources for strategic sectors such as packaging and the chemical industry in the Valencian Region. With a pre-competitive approach, the project is being developed at pilot scale and will be validated in real industrial environments, contributing to a more efficient and sustainable circular economy.

Summary and objectives

FIBREC will focus on the development of fiber conditioning and segregation processes with the aim of reintroducing them into the value chain. This will include all types of textile waste, from separated non-reusable textile fractions to textiles collected at recycling points.

The main objective of the project is the development of industrial processes for the valorization of fibrous textile products—specifically those with high polyester and polycotton content—through waste identification, pretreatment, and recycling processes. It is worth noting that these processes will enable the conversion of complex fiber-based waste, currently destined for landfills, into high-quality raw materials using both mechanical and chemical techniques tailored to the needs of the local industry.

The waste will be analyzed and sorted to identify and quantify the different materials present, allowing the determination of their origin and the establishment of stable raw material sources. Next, a conditioning process will be carried out in which fibers are separated according to their composition, and elements that could interfere with recycling are removed. Finally, the materials will be transformed into raw materials through various processes and evaluated to ensure they meet a quality comparable to that of commercial raw materials used in the packaging and chemical industry sectors.

The FIBREC project will be implemented through three lines of action:

1. Mapping of fibrous waste and development of fiber pretreatment and segregation processes: A study of the different fractions will be conducted, and an optimized pretreatment and sorting process will be designed to obtain pure material streams suitable for effective recycling processes.

2. Development and research of physical-mechanical recycling processes and transformation through injection: This will involve the extrusion of PET granules followed by injection molding focused on packaging products.

3. Development of chemical recycling processes: Different depolymerization routes through solvolysis will be studied, adapted to each fraction, aiming to recover monomers of sufficient quality for repolymerization and valorization. The work will include pilot-scale testing to validate technical-industrial viability.