Improving The Recycling Of Waste Spinning Has Become The Focus Of The 14Th Five Year Plan

Recently, the national development and Reform Commission issued the "14th five year plan" circular economy development plan (hereinafter referred to as the "plan")《 The plan points out that resource recycling has become an important way to ensure the security of resources in China“ During the 14th Five Year Plan period, we will vigorously develop circular economy, promote resource conservation and intensive utilization, and build a resource recycling industrial system and waste materials recycling system.

"The plan will provide development space for the recycling industry of waste textiles (hereinafter referred to as waste textile) Yang Yinghong, executive director of Shanghai Yuanyuan Industrial Co., Ltd., said, "generally, discarded textiles are classified into two categories: old textiles and waste textiles. Old textiles are clothes and home textiles which are eliminated after daily consumption, which can maintain their original form and extend their service life. However, the waste spinning can only be used as raw materials, but its utilization rate is less than 20% due to various limiting factors. Most of them are mainly treated by incineration and landfill, which causes great pollution to the environment. Therefore, improving the recycling of waste spinning has become the focus of the industry during the "14th five year plan"

　　 The utilization rate of waste spinning can reach 60%, and the carbon dioxide emission can be reduced by 25.92 million tons

According to the data provided by China Textile Industry Federation, China's textile industry consumed 49.7 million tons of textile raw materials in 2016, accounting for 48% of the global total consumption of textile raw materials, 52% in 2017 and 55% in 2018, ranking first in the world.

According to the calculation, Yang Yinghong pointed out: "in the process of production and processing, the annual output of textile waste is about 2 million tons based on 4%, and the process of textile processing as consumer goods is about 3 million tons based on 6%. In addition, in the aspect of consumption, the special survey data organized by enterprises show that, including uniforms of civil servants, security guards and students, more than 10 million tons of clothes (mainly waste textiles are mainly waste clothes) will be eliminated nationwide every year. About one third of them will become old textiles, which can maintain their original form and extend their service life. The remaining 2 / 3 of 6.66 million tons will become waste textiles. All together, there are nearly 12 million tons of waste spinning available every year. "

In 2017, 14 departments including the national development and Reform Commission issued the notice on printing and distributing the leading action of recycling development, which clearly required promoting the recycling and upgrading of renewable resources, promoting the recycling of waste textiles, and establishing a hierarchical utilization mechanism of waste textiles. Enterprises and industries are encouraged to actively recycle waste textile for secondary utilization.

According to the public data, in 2018, the comprehensive utilization of waste textile in China was about 3.8 million tons, and the comprehensive utilization rate was about 19%. Although the utilization rate of waste spinning has been improved, there is still a large space for development.

Zhao Guoliang, Professor of the China Institute of clothing science and technology, Beijing Institute of fashion, said: "if waste textiles are not fully utilized, on the one hand, it will cause waste of natural fibers such as cotton, wool, silk, hemp and other raw materials and synthetic fibers with petroleum as raw materials, as well as energy waste in spinning, dyeing and finishing; On the other hand, chemical fiber is difficult to degrade in nature, such as landfill treatment, which will cause long-term pollution to the environment. Therefore, the utilization of waste textiles is not only a resource reuse problem, but also a major environmental problem

According to the research data of the Research Institute of Copenhagen University, carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by 3.6 kg for each kilogram of waste spinning.

According to Yang Yinghong, if 12 million tons of waste textile waste are produced every year and the comprehensive utilization rate reaches 60% (i.e. the utilization amount is 7.2 million tons), the carbon dioxide emission can be reduced by 25.92 million tons. If an enterprise uses 60000 tons of waste textile every year, it is estimated that the carbon dioxide emission will be reduced by 216 thousand tons, the use of water will be reduced by 260 thousand tons, and the use of fertilizers, pesticides and chemical dyes will be reduced by 18000 tons, 12000 tons and 480 tons respectively.

　　 Industry chain end enterprises are uneven, waste spinning is mostly used to reduce dimension

From the perspective of energy saving and carbon reduction, it is of great significance to improve the recycling and harmless of waste spinning and promote the efficient utilization of waste spinning. However, due to the limitation of technology and cost, efficient utilization of waste spinning is still a difficult problem.

"The recycling methods of waste textile in China mainly rely on small vendors' recycling and fixed-point centralized recycling in residential areas. The quality of employees engaged in waste textile recycling is uneven, most of them are family members in partnership, which not only belongs to unlicensed operation, but also does not have the ability to process and produce as raw materials. After waste textile recycling, waste textile is diverted to the corresponding production and processing enterprises. " Yang Yinghong pointed out the problems existing in the waste textile industry chain from the recycling end.

"Under the existing economic and technological conditions, many enterprises simply select and use the second-hand clothes and raw materials that can be used, and the remaining part becomes the lowest level waste such as" black material "and" pyrotechnic material ". This part of waste should be treated as harmless and separated disposal. However, it is known that part of the waste textile is disposed of when the dry waste is incinerated, and the flow direction of some is unknown Yang Yinghong said.

Zhao Guoliang also said that the production, processing and utilization technology is not mature, resulting in serious waste of textile waste. "Although China has a long history of waste textile recycling, there have been problems such as small scale, backward technology and low added value of products," he said. Some processing and utilization enterprises use low value-added methods to make use of those things that are valuable from the perspective of materials, and the proportion of utilization is also very low. "

"The ideal state is to classify the waste spinning and use it according to different levels, so as to ensure the recycling utilization rate and high value utilization of waste spinning." Zhao Guoliang pointed out that "most waste textiles are blended fabrics, which may contain different types and proportions of various fibers. For high-value reuse, they need to be separated according to their components, and then recycled and utilized according to different components. At present, the cost of automatic sorting equipment is still high. Many small and medium-sized enterprises use physical method to loosen waste spinning into short fiber cotton without grading. In fact, some of the waste yarns entering the Kaisong factory are of good quality and have long fibers. They can be decomposed into coarse yarns by technology, and then continue to be used as raw materials for textiles. However, most of the enterprises at the end of the industrial chain do not have the corresponding technology and equipment, and the waste spinning is not only used for dimension reduction, but also has a low utilization rate

(source: China Cotton Association)