Polyester-cotton blends are cheap, long lasting…a way to recycle them into new threads

Polyester-cotton blends are cheap, long lasting—and account for half of textile waste. A relaunched biofuel startup has invented a way to recycle them into new threads.

The advent of fast fashion kicked textile manufacturing into overdrive, with production doubling between 2000 to 2015. Fast fashion’s low cost and easy accessibility promoted the idea that textiles were disposable, and consumers bought into it. The average European produces about 33 pounds of textile waste a year, only 19% of which is recycled. A full truckload of textile waste is dumped into a landfill or incinerated every second. But there’s a piece of good news here—the recycling of textiles is improving. Read more at Fortune.