Around 92 million tons of textiles are discarded every
year worldwide with over 85% ending up in landfills
even though much could be recycled. But that’s
complicated, because fabrics are generally blends–
hard to tell what they’re made of. A novel technology:
a special tracer fiber that encodes unique information
about a fabric’s composition and origin, now exists
and can be directly woven into it and read much like a
barcode. When the garment is discarded, the fiber
label could be read for easy sorting and recycling.
news.umich.edu/a-game-changer-for-clothing-recycling/
Climate Crisis Blog
