New technology turns old discarded clothing into pigments

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Scientists have created a new, commercially viable way to recycle old clothing and other waste fabrics. The new technology grinds clothing down into fine particles that can be used as a pigment, which will help keep thousands of tonnes of textiles out of landfill each year.

Transcript

00:00 It may be hard to believe, but all of this used to be old clothing.

00:10 A year ago we started working on this particular part of the project, which is funded by Sustainability

00:15 Victoria, to look at a new way to handle textiles and reduce the textile waste problem.

00:22 Scientists at Deakin University in Geelong are using existing machinery used in industries

00:27 like agriculture and mining to crush old clothes.

00:32 The broken up fabric then goes into a second machine, where it's mixed with water and

00:37 small beads to grind the pigment into a liquid.

00:41 It's then dried into a clay or a fine powder.

00:44 This particle can then be used as a pigment to dye other materials, such as other textiles,

00:49 or paper, wood, plastic, any other material that you'd like.

00:53 These are the substances that colour items such as paint and dye and clothing, but many

00:59 of them are made from harmful chemicals.

01:02 Deakin's process could be a greener alternative, and some in the fashion industry are getting

01:07 pretty excited.

01:08 Thank God this is already here in Australia.

01:12 So right at our doorstep we have the ability to innovate.

01:16 To test their product, Deakin partnered with artists to see how their pigment could work

01:22 as a paint.

01:23 I'm just really eager to get it onto a white canvas to see what the colours would look

01:29 like.

01:30 Kiri Tafai is one of six Indigenous artists who are part of an exhibition showcasing the

01:34 uses of the pigment.

01:36 I really like painting bright, bold colours.

01:40 A lot of the time lately there have been flowers, but I do a lot of artwork surrounding song

01:44 lines and a lot of movement.

01:46 She usually works with acrylic paint, which is made with plastic, and says she's keen

01:51 to use something more environmentally friendly.

01:55 If we can actually take these beautiful, bright fabrics, break it down into a usable pigment

02:00 and then put these amazing pieces of art into the world, there was just something really

02:04 amazing about that.

02:05 But she admits the technology needs some finessing.

02:09 Blue was a little bit more of a violet and the red was definitely a bit more of a pink.

02:13 Surf brand Rip Curl is also experimenting with the technology and has made t-shirts

02:19 using the pigments to screen print different designs as part of Geelong Design Week.

02:24 The next step is figuring out how to make the process commercially viable.

02:29 We're using equipment that is easily commercially available, so it's very easy to scale it up.

02:33 But there may be other obstacles.

02:35 What we know is there's a lot of work that needs to be done to secure large volumes of

02:41 clothing so that the textile recyclers can build that infrastructure and know that that

02:47 level of volume is secured.

02:49 One person keen to take on that challenge is Ben Kaminski.

02:53 He's the co-founder of a textile waste company who's partnered with the university to supply

02:58 the waste material.

03:00 He wants to open a factory to ramp up production.

03:04 Pigment's got a tremendous amount of potential uses.

03:07 So we feel it can go back into topical paints, it can go into building products.

03:14 And eventually, the pigment could go back into making new clothes.

03:19 Plastic bottles turning into t-shirts, now that's not optimal.

03:23 It's not bad, but it's not optimal.

03:24 Really what we want is your old t-shirt turning into your new t-shirt.

03:28 Deakin University is now looking at the carbon footprint of the machines to figure out the

03:32 most sustainable way to scale the method.

03:35 But with Australia's innovation in the area of textile recycling still in its infancy,

03:41 the path ahead may stretch out for a while yet.

03:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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