Why recycled cotton?

As per the Council for Textile Recycling, every year on an average 25 billion pounds of textile waste is generated. Cotton recycling can be a conventional solution to prevent textiles from ending up in landfills and thereby acting as a sustainable alternative to disposal.

It reduces the use of conventional cotton and thus saves a significant amount of water, energy, CO2, and fossil fuel emission used in producing conventional cotton. 765,000 litres of water can be saved per ton of cotton recycled and it also reduces the production process by eliminating processes like dyeing as the sourced material is already dyed and segregated by colour. Additionally, as per the Higg Material Sustainability Index, a score of 1 was allotted to recycled cotton while 11.9 and 60.5 were allotted to organic and conventional cotton respectively.

Recycled cotton can find a new life in different ways, it can be used in low-grade products such as automotive insulation, mop heads, rags, and stuffing; in industries as polishing and wiping cloth and high quality, paper can also be made out of it. Recycled cotton yarns are also sold in markets like other yarns for consumers who wish to make items from it. Additionally, cotton waste can be made into a stronger, more durable paper than traditional wood-pulp based paper. Cotton paper is stronger and more durable than wood-pulp paper, it is used for important documents and banknotes. Mushrooms can also be grown from cotton waste, particularly volvariella volvacea also known as Straw Mushrooms.