What is recycled polyester fabric?
Recycled fabric is fabric that is made from recycled materials to create a new valuable item. The garbage or wastage we dumped into the trash every day can be recycled, reused, and re-created. Therefore, trashes like clothing waste, food waste (such as fish scales), and plastic bottles are major types of materials that can be reused by using simple technological processes to produce recycled fabrics.
What is recycled polyester fiber?
Recycled polyester staple fiber refers to the use of polyester fabric, waste polyester bottle flakes, spinning waste, foam material, and pulp block as raw materials. Waste bottle flakes are crushed and cleaned, and a mixture of various materials is dried, melted, and extruded.
We can also refer to “RPET” as “recycled polyester” because RPET material is composed entirely of plastic bottles.
Advantages
- The use of recycled polyester can effectively reduce the amount of petroleum. The data shows that each ton of recycled polyester yarn can save 1 ton of oil and 6 tons of water.
- Recycling a 1-liter plastic bottle can reduce CO₂ emissions by 0.042 kg, and for every 20 plastic bottles recycled, they can be processed into a summer T-shirt. This process can reduce CO₂ emissions, recycle and reuse resources, and reduce environmental impact.
Recycled polyester fabric, also known as rPET, is a synthetic material made from plastic waste that is recycled from PET bottles, bags, containers, etc. It is eco-friendly, affordable, and durable, with the same properties as virgin polyester. It has many applications in clothing, especially for activewear and sports apparel, as well as in industrial products such as car tires, ropes, and conveyer belts. Recycled polyester fabric reduces the environmental impact of plastic pollution and saves energy and water compared to virgin polyester production
Every day millions of plastic bottles are being thrown away; meanwhile, those bottles can be an ecofriendly and sustainable resource. By choosing recycled PET polyester fabric & yarn, we’re able to help plastic bottles out of the landfill and oceans. Recycled PET yarn can perform as well as regular virgin yarn with a much smaller footprint.
RPET requires 86% less water than regular virgin polyester.
RPET consumes 70% less energy than regular virgin polyester.
RPET produces 75% fewer CO₂ emissions than regular virgin polyester.
The fabric is recyclable and can save energy, oil consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions. Each pound of recycled RPET fabric can save 61,000 BTU of power, equivalent to 21 pounds of carbon dioxide. After eco-friendly dyeing, coating, and calendering, the material can also pass MTL, SGS, ITS, and other international standards testing, including phthalate (6P), formaldehyde, lead (PB), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, nonylphenol, and other environmental indicators up to the latest European environmental standards and the latest United States environmental standards.
What is the difference between polyester fabric and recycled polyester fabric?
Unlike traditional polyester made from petroleum and coal, recycled polyester gets a second life from waste plastic bottles. This saves resources and keeps plastic out of landfills. And the good news? Recycled polyester offers the same fire resistance, comfort, and style as its virgin counterpart, even boasting antibacterial and antiviral properties!
Now, let’s compare. Regular polyester relies on fossil fuels, harming the environment. In contrast, recycled polyester provides plastic a new purpose, reducing our dependence on non-renewable resources. Plus, it retains the awesome qualities of polyester we all know and love, like stain resistance, quick drying, and wrinkle-free wear.
Polyester fabrics’ characteristics are
- High intensity. The short fiber strength is 2.657 CN/dtex, and the high tenacity fiber is 5.680 CN/dtex.
- Hygroscopicity is low; it’s very easy to dry after washing.
- Crease resistance is higher than other fibers. That is, the fabric does not wrinkle and has good dimensional stability
- Good flexibility. Elastic close to wool, stretching 5% to 6%, can be almost completely restored.
- Impact resistance is 4 times higher than nylon and 20 times higher than viscose.
- Good wear resistance. Wear resistance is second only to nylon, which is the best wear resistance and better than other natural and synthetic fibers
- Good thermoplastic, poor fusibility.
- Good lightfastness. Light resistance is second only to acrylic fiber.
- Preservatives. It is resistant to bleaches, oxidants, hydrocarbons, ketones, petroleum products, and inorganic acids. It’s resistant to dilute lye and mildew, but the hot lye breaks it down. It also has strong acid and alkali resistance and UV resistance.
What is the difference in performance between recycled polyester fabric and standard polyester fabric
As a kind of polyester fabric, recycled polyester fabric has the general characteristics of polyester fabric. The recycled polyester fabric is made from waste. The individual source of raw material is completely unique. Therefore, the features of recycled polyester fabric are slightly other than ordinary polyester.
The color difference of recycled polyester fabric is larger than that of standard polyester fabric
The quality of regenerated polyester fiber is difficult to control because of its long production process and various raw materials. The fabrics of different batches of regenerated polyester fiber dyed by the same dyeing prescription and the same dyeing process have specific color differences. Even if it’s the same manufacturer and the same model, different products’ batches will also have more significant differences, especially in the strength and color light more obvious.
Therefore, each bobbin yarn’s power should be tested before weaving, and only those yarns that pass the test can continue to be used. Besides, even if the color has been done before, different fabric batches before dyeing are still re-L/D to avoid the final color light difference.
Different dyeing conditions
Different staining temperatures
The standard polyester fabric can be set at 135°C, while that of recycled polyester fabric can be selected at 125°C. Using disperse dye RUBIES-2GFL (126) under the same conditions, the relative dye-uptake of recycled polyester fiber and standard polyester fabric can be seen: the relative dye-uptake of regenerated polyester fiber is close to 100% at 100 °C, and that of standard polyester fiber at 120 °C, the relative dye-up rate is only comparable to 100%. So the recycled polyester can be dyed at a lower temperature.
Different holding times
Because the arrangement of regenerated polyester fiber crystal is not tight, the color of recycled polyester fabric is darker after dyeing at the same time. Therefore, the dyeing time of recycled polyester fabric can be reduced appropriately. It is found that the dyeing time of standard polyester fabric is 30 min and that of recycled polyester fabric is 20 min.
Alkali resistance is worse than standard polyester
Polyester fabric alkali resistance is low; renewable polyester raw materials are from waste polyester, Polaroid bottles, etc. Its alkali resistance is worse. Therefore, for polyester regeneration in the reduction cleaning, pay special attention to the alkaline cleaning solution. When the pH value is higher than 11.0, the strength loss of regenerated polyester fiber is severe. Therefore, in the reduction cleaning, controlling the pH value does not exceed 11.0.
The color fastness of regenerated polyester fabric is the same as that of common polyester fabric.
With the same specifications of regenerated polyester and standard polyester, the standard polyester fabric was dyed at 135°C for 30 min. The regenerated polyester knitted fabric was dyed at 125°C for 20 min. Test the colorfastness to washing, acid perspiration, and light.
The recycled polyester has better hygroscopicity and permeability and can be widely used in sportswear, suits, coats, jackets, pants, etc. However, the high oil content, rigidity, strength, and heat resistance of the recycled polyester fiber are not as good as that of the standard polyester fiber. The color difference of recycled fabric is more extensive than standard poly fabrics.
Key points for buyers of recycled fabrics
1. The supplier must have the relevant certificate.
Such as GRS, GOTS, RWS, and RDS. GRS (General Recycled Standard) is very popular in the textile industry. Only products with at least 50% recycled material content meet the product-specific GRS label. GRS certificates can be issued by multiple certification bodies, with Cu, ITS, and USB receiving the most reviews.
2. Require supplier to provide TC proof of transaction
When the supplier has the certification of GRS, Gots, RWS, and RDS, each shipment should apply for TC Trading Certificate from the Certification Body. TC = Transaction Certificate is used to confirm that the production and trading products conform to the corresponding rules
3. With recycled tags
Qualified recyclable fabric will provide product tags to prove that the material is a recyclable product.
The recycled polyester fabric is the future
More and more companies are choosing it for their products, recognizing its eco-friendly benefits. It’s our responsibility to protect the planet, and using recycled polyester is a wonderful step in the right direction. Let’s all do our part and embrace the power of recycled clothing!
We supply recycled polyester fabric or eco-friendly fabric, which includes fabric items that are Global Recycling Standard (GRS) certified. It is proved that using recycled polyester helps to reduce energy, air pollution, water pollution and waste if compared to virgin polyester fabric made from petroleum.
Is recycled fabric safe?
Recycled fabrics are a safe alternative to regular polyester and polyester blends! Our products are tested and certified by GRS (Global Recycled Standard) in every step of the production chain; we provide full transparency and traceability.
How can we produce RPET yarn & recycled fabric?
- We collect recycled plastic bottles from the Chinese mainland and oceans. when these bottles reaching our factory, we are starting to turn waste into fabric
- A flotation and separation process removes bottles’ caps and labels, as these caps and labels are different characteristics of plastic. Then we’ll crush bottles into tiny flakes.
- Tiny flakes will be washed and sifted so as to be melted and polymerized.
- Cut into chips and stable fibers.
- Chips & stable fibers can be spun into yarns, and yarns will be woven or knitted into various recycled PET fabrics
- A plastic bottle weighs about 20g/27g/24g. Now we can take a 24g bottle, for example: 24g * 71% (about 71% of a plastic bottle can be made into fabric) ≈ 17.04g (a plastic bottle weighs in full-width fabric).
- The fabrics you buy weigh 110 gsm, and greige fabrics have a full width of 1.52 m, so 1 meter of fabric may equal 110 gsm * 1.52 m / 17.04 g ≈ 9.8 plastic bottles.
Q: Source of raw materials for recycled fabrics
A: Not only coke bottles and mineral water bottles but also pre-consumption and post-consumption sources: The pre-consumption part refers to waste material, waste block, waste yarn, waste cloth, and waste scraps from printing and dyeing clothing waste products. The post-consumption part refers to bottles, used textile garments, and textile products, such as clothing, cloth, carpets, decorations, etc.
Q: What is the health and safety of the recycled materials
A: Except for the difference between raw yarn and recycled yarn, the production process of recycled yarn is purified/melted/filtered to be used safely.
Q: The recycling process of recycled materials
A: Divided into the mechanical method and chemical method “Mechanical method” refers to collecting, cleaning, crushing, and purifying recycled waste and then melting and spinning it to produce fibers. During mechanical recycling, plastic waste is recycled into new material without altering the chemical structure of the polymer.
In chemical recycling, sorted plastic waste undergoes a process where polymers are broken down into individual building blocks. These can then be transformed back into new plastic products. The chemical method utilizes the reversibility of polycondensation by depolymerizing the recovered materials into monomers or polymeric intermediates after separation and purification. It can be condensed into high-quality recycled yarn.
To learn more about this, please visit the following link: https://vnpolyfiber.com/recycling-process/
Read more: What is Polyester Fabric?
