Fashion cycle: BASF launches its first factory to recycle waste nylon clothing

BASF has started operating its first commercial plant to recycle waste textiles back into feedstock for new garments.

The plant at the chemical company’s Caojing site in Shanghai, China has an annual capacity of 500 t/y. It is depolymerising polyamide 6 – also known as nylon 6 – into caprolactam which can be reused to make materials for clothes.

Given the volume of clothing waste produced each year, much more needs to be done to improve sustainability, including closing the loop on manufacturing. It’s estimated that as many as 45bn garments, equivalent to around a third of the total manufactured globally each year, are never sold or worn, with most ending up in landfill or incineration.

In January last year, fashion retailer Zara made an entire jacket, including the fabric, buttons, and zip, from BASF’s recycled nylon 6, which the chemicals company markets as loopamid.

Ramkumar Dhruva, president of BASF’s monomers division, said: “The technology behind loopamid allows textile-to-textile recycling for polyamide 6 in a wide variety of fabric blends, including those with elastane.”

BASF has revealed little about the processing technology involved and declined to provide details on how its depolymerisation and purification steps work.

A spokesperson said: “End-of-life textiles which include both post-consumer and post-industrial textile waste is recycled at a molecular level ready to be transformed into brand new premium fabrics. Many textiles are not pure polyamide but blends of various materials, which may complicate the recycling process. Separating the polyamide from other materials in these blends can be technically challenging. BASF has developed a process to regain polyamide 6 in a robust process with high yields.”

It says the circular process saves 70% of emissions compared to manufacturing with fossil-based raw materials.