Circularity: is going around in circles a pathway forward?

Cotton has a natural place in the circular economy. It’s biodegradable, renewable and recyclable and it doesn’t have the microplastics problem associated with synthetic fabrics.

CRDC and Cotton Australia are working together with partner organisations to create a circular industry and to help put cotton back on top as a fibre of choice.

The push towards circularity comes as cotton – as both a fibre for textiles and as an industry – has a responsibility from a social licence, sustainability and consumer perspective to continue to reduce its environmental impact. Meanwhile, cotton’s customers, the textile and fashion industry, has found itself the target of increasingly intensifying regulation focused on reducing the environmental impacts of their products, from raw material production to their end of life.

The three key principles of a circular economy are to design out waste and pollution, keep products and materials in use and regenerate natural systems.

Leading brands, retailers and manufacturers are increasingly focused on these principles, as a means to reduce fashion’s significant impact on the natural environment globally – and the Australian cotton industry is too.

Top consumers, top wasters

Australia ranks second worldwide in textile consumption per capita. Australians spent $34.7 billion on fashion and apparel in 2022, and throw out around 800,000 tonnes of textiles and clothes annually. Furthermore, 93 per cent of these textiles from Australian wardrobes end up in landfill, oceans, or abroad as landfill. This is in spite of the fact more than 80 per cent of textile waste is recyclable.

A recent report from Textile Exchange says over the next two to four years – or just four cotton harvests away at most – more than 35 new pieces of sustainability-linked regulation are expected to come into effect around the world, targeting import restrictions, product design guidelines, labelling requirements and more. As an exporter of its product, the Australian cotton industry has been taking action to prepare for this future.

So what role does the Australian cotton industry, its growers, scientists and RD&E organisations such as CRDC have to play in ensuring Australian cotton is a fibre of choice based on its sustainability credentials?

“The Australian cotton industry must be able to show and share its credentials, demonstrating that we are working to continually reduce our carbon footprint, and that we proactively support methods to manage ‘waste’,” CRDC Acting Executive Director Allan Williams said.

“As well as farm-focused R&D to improve the efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of cotton production, CRDC’s also working beyond the farm gate with partners on end-of-life solutions for cotton and cotton blend textiles to create a circular cotton economy that benefits our growers, and the retailers and brands that sell cotton clothing.”

The Australian textile industry is on notice that it needs to improve the stewardship of its products and especially reduce the levels of waste associated with the industry. A National Clothing Product Stewardship Scheme overseen by the Australian Fashion Council (AFC) has been established to support the industry to voluntarily improve textile recovery, re-use and recycling. This has included Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and while voluntary in Australia, it is important to note that in other jurisdictions this is being used as a policy strategy to hold producers formally responsible for the end-of-life consequences of their goods.

In addition to working with CRDC, Cotton Australia is working with brands, not-for-profit organisations, universities and businesses to help find solutions to the textile waste problem in Australia, with the ultimate goal of turning textiles into products that can be used back on the farm.

Cotton Australia works with brands and retailers to align priorities and work together on solutions. Through CRDC, they are investing in research and development into this area and have convened the Cotton Converts group that’s aligning problems with solutions for textile waste. Cotton Australia has support from the AFC who are working with sustainability organisations and scientists.

Their goal is to achieve circularity within the Australian fashion industry by 2030 through a range of initiatives starting in 2024 and the Australian cotton industry is dedicated to playing a part in this.

Allan said the Australian cotton industry can position itself as a fibre-partner of choice for retailers and brands by working on solutions to manage textile waste.

“This is why we’ve committed $2 million to circularity research over the next three years – helping to inform our overall aim of developing a scalable solution for textile waste in Australia.

“This investment is across seven research projects, each designed to be a ‘piece of the puzzle’ in addressing key research gaps and questions.”

The research is overseen by CRDC’s Acting General Manager Innovation, Dr Merry Conaty, and a steering committee, comprising of representatives from CRDC, Cotton Australia, researchers, brands and NGOs. The research projects include:

Circular cotton field sites: the set of trials at Goondiwindi and Gunnedah with growers Sam Coulton and Scott Morgan and researcher Dr Oliver Knox of the University of New England. These trials are designed to be a proof-of-concept to demonstrate that textile waste can be composted and added to cotton farms without impacts on soil health, soil structure and function, and cotton growth and development. The trials are currently entering their third season at Goondiwindi and second season at Gunnedah.

Closing the loop: textile waste composting for improved carbon footprint and sustainability – University of Newcastle/NSW DPI (see EPIC story previous page).

An evaluation of cotton fibre waste processing and composting alternatives: Comparison of business models, greenhouse gas emissions and commercialisation opportunities – University of Technology, Sydney/University of New England (See story page 22).

The economic benefits of composting textile waste: process mapping and optimal location – RMIT. This project will focus on key questions around the economics and logistics of textile waste transport, processing and composting. This will ensure options being developed for scalability of the composting process are based on actual costs and viable supply chains. The research will establish where and how this process can be located to produce a model of how a scalable solution for textile waste can be developed. A separate proposed project would assess the potential to develop gins for localised shredding and processing of textile waste close to cotton farms, with the potential to provide employment and economic growth.

Developing a pathway for the composting and agricultural use of pure cotton textile waste – University of Queensland. This project will focus on assessing different methods to deliver textile waste to cotton fields, through pelletisation techniques and worm farming of the textile waste.

CRDC is participating in a working group to develop standards for textile composting and waste processing through Standards Australia.

Why composting for circularity?

Some solutions to textile waste are simple but not simplistic. As shown in a study commissioned by CRDC and Australian Wool Innovation, consistent environmental improvements are best achieved by minimising unnecessary garment purchases and maximising wear life. It also showed that the climate change impacts could be negated simply by wearing these clothes for longer. In good news for cotton and wool, by increasing the number of wears of a natural fibre garment by 50 per cent, greenhouse gas emissions would be avoided entirely, primarily because of avoided emissions associated with the manufacture of a new garment from polyester or synthetic PET (polyethylene terephthalate, the same type of plastic used in soft drink bottles).

Since the early 1980s, the production of synthetic fibres has increased more than six times, which is 3.6 times that of the global population growth rate. Over the same period, the increase in cotton production has approximately matched population growth, and wool production increased at less than half the rate of population growth. This highlights that a shift in market share towards synthetic fibres and away from natural fibres has occurred in unison with the increased per capita demand for fibre.

From CRDC’s investment and innovation perspective, while changing buyer behaviour is beyond the scope of RD&E, there is a role for innovative research to close the cotton growing loop.

“We can’t control how many garments people buy, what they are made from and how long they wear them, so we have to focus on what we can influence: and that is the issue of textile waste,” Merry said.

“By redirecting cotton textiles that are currently bound for landfill both here and abroad back into our cotton fields, we can create a closed loop for cotton production in Australia that helps to avoid emissions and enhance soil health.

“So we need to work out how we do that, and we’re making headway thanks to growers like Sam Coulton and Scott Morgan who are hosting the on-farm trials, and supporting projects and scientists who are using innovative scientific methods such as developing methods of recycling and quantifying the benefits of composting cotton fibre waste/end-of-life materials.”

For more

Merry Conaty

meredith.conaty@crdc.com.au

This article appears courtesy of the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC). It was published in the (Summer 2023) edition of CRDC’s Spotlight magazine: www.crdc.com.au/spotlight

EPIC research

17 18 University of Newcastle team at work Arun rgb

One of the CRDC-supported circularity research projects involves the team at the University of Newcastle’s Environmental Plastics and Innovation Cluster (EPIC). The EPIC team in association with NSW DPI at Narrabri NSW are tackling the textile waste crisis by developing commercially viable solutions that transform waste into a sustainable and circular system.

EPIC’s Dr Thava Palanisami says the team’s focus is on addressing the issue of blended textiles, which are challenging to recycle efficiently.

“Australia’s high textile consumption and production of textile waste contributes to an elevated carbon footprint, microfibre pollution and chemical contamination of ecosystems,” Thava said.

“By chemically treating these textiles and optimising our technology for fabrics of various types, we aim to recover polyester for re-polymerisation while upcycling cotton into valuable chemicals.”

This approach closes the loop in textile waste management, making it a more sustainable, carbon-neutral and circular industry. The team’s future focus is assessing the potential for industrial-scale implementation, with a long-term aspiration to end the practice of textiles ending up in landfill. Instead, they aim to repurpose them into new fabrics or innovative, value-added products.

The EPIC team has also set up an upcycling process for cotton with a dual objective. CRDC is supporting PhD research scholar Arun Chandra Manivannan as a part of this project.

The project, Closing the loop in textile production by composting textile waste for improved carbon footprint, is primarily focusing on fixing carbon stored in cotton (captured during growth) into the soil by composting, for the benefit of improved soil health, the carbon economy and productivity. 

“So, we are working to reintegrate cotton into the soil as a compost, enhancing soil carbon content,” Arun said.

“We convert cotton into valuable chemicals as part of this chemical recycling strategy.

“This comprehensive approach effectively closes the loop in textile waste management: recycling synthetic components back into fibres and reinvigorating cotton as soil carbon or value-added chemicals.”