In recent years, “regenerated fiber” can be said to be a star in the chemical fiber circle. It has become a fashionable darling for a while. Major manufacturers are rushing to develop it, and the stages of recycled fiber products at major exhibitions are also much more lively.
Especially In recent years, brands such as Adidas, Inditex, and H&M have begun to continuously require suppliers to provide more environmentally friendly fibers, and the use of recycled fibers has gradually increased every year.
Adidas will fully use recycled polyester fiber in 2024
Inditex will achieve 100% sustainability of raw materials in 2025
H&M will use 100% recycled materials in 2030
IKEA promises to use only renewable or recycled materials in all products by 2030
……
Recycled fiber is the recycling of waste resources, allowing limited resources to circulate infinitely.
Polyester fiber accounts for about 70% of chemical fiber fibers, and the application of polyester in the bottle making industry is rapidly expanding, so recycled fiber is mainly recycled polyester fiber.
According to incomplete statistics, my country’s recycled polyester fiber production in 2018 was approximately 5.1 million tons, accounting for 80% of the global total production about. Production capacity is mainly concentrated in the eastern coastal areas, with the production capacity of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces accounting for more than 70% of the country’s total production capacity.
my country’s recycled polyester industry has a development history of nearly 30 years. In the 21st century, with the advancement of technology, it has gradually developed to use bottle flakes as the main raw material or foam materials as auxiliary raw materials to produce recycled general fiber, hollow fiber, polyester filament and polyester industrial yarn.
There are two main process routes for the production of recycled polyester fiber: one is to use recycled materials such as bottle materials and polyester waste silk to be directly spun through crushing and granulation, which is called physical recycling Production method; the second is to use waste polyester materials such as waste clothing and scraps as the initial raw materials, and reduce them to polyester through thorough chemical decomposition, which is called the chemical recycling production method.
At present, recycled polyester fiber is mainly produced by physical recycling production method. As my country’s waste textile recycling system is not yet complete and chemical recycling production methods are progressing relatively slowly, more than 30 million tons of waste textiles are not effectively utilized every year. In the future, the domestic recycling system will gradually improve, and the progress of chemical recycling production methods may accelerate.
For the polyester industry chain, recycled fiber is both an opportunity and a challenge.
On the road to sustainable green development, there are more and more travelers. Nowadays, industrial resources are increasingly scarce and natural resources are becoming scarce. The textile and clothing industry is facing tremendous pressure and is beginning to seek new, more environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative textile materials. Regenerated fiber will undoubtedly become a trend. For the polyester industry chain, opportunities Parallel to challenges.
For applications in some downstream low-value industries, they may face huge challenges. Some companies may not be able to use recycled polyester plastic bottle flakes because the price is too expensive. The main reason is that after cleaning the bottle flakes, they are graded and used. Many of them are of excellent quality, such as A-grade materials, 3A, 5A, etc., and the price of recycled materials has exceeded that of fiber. The value borne.
Because the value of fiber is suppressed by the value of virgin fiber, although some varieties are higher than the virgin value, 80 to 90% of the product value is lower than the virgin value, and there is no room for growth. . As industrial differentiation becomes more refined, some companies will be greatly affected.
Some raw material processors or mid-to-high-end brands that are in line with the sustainable development strategies advocated by international brands are not only It refers to textile chemical fibers, and may also refer to some packaging materials, such as profiles or membrane materials. Materials used in high-end applications may have better room for development.
However, in terms of overall volume, due to the restrictions on the export and import of waste plastics by various countries’ policies, polyester materials in China and Southeast Asia are facing the possibility of on-site digestion, and the utilization rate has increased. , and at the same time, the demand for high-grade raw materials is extremely strong.
How long will it take for the chemical fiber industry to enter the “100% green and environmentally friendly” era? 20 years? 30 years? Or 50 years? The answer may be 10 years, or even less! </p
