Abstract:

Significance The direct disposal of textiles for daily use leads to double pressures of environmental pollution and resource waste. Under the macro environment of national promotion for energy conservation and emission reduction and public participation in waste sorting, the recycling of waste textiles becomes a necessary condition for the sustainable development of the textile industry. Relevant policies were issued nationally, but the management of waste textiles was different from place to place. Coupled with the occurrence of market chaos, many consumers have insufficient understanding on recycling waste textiles, and low support for the products made from tecycled textiles. The quality of the recovered waste textiles and the quality of products from recycled textiles seem to be the key to the sound development of circular economy in the textile industry. With the aim to stabilize the quality of remanufactured products from waste textiles, standardize market order, and improve the credibility of the public, it was of great significance for a supervision and inspection system for recycling waste textiles to be established.

Progress According to an in-depth analysis of the present situation about the waste textiles legal system, waste textiles were classified as solid wastes, which are regulated by laws of environmental protection. Based on international experience and the present domestic situation of recycling, a strategy to further improve the system was put forward. It is more appropriate for waste textiles to be separated at the household level and collected separately. The existing standard system cannot fully cover the categories of remanufactured products. Some national mandatory standards explicitly prohibit the use of waste textiles, which hinders the re-use of waste textiles. The latest research achievements of the inspection and testing technology of waste textiles were described, including the application of infrared spectroscopy in sorting process and qualitative analysis of regenerated fibers. In some studies, it was found that infrared spectroscopy has good applicability in the rapid detection of cotton, polyester and wool/cashmere fibers in waste textiles, which is able to effectively improve the detection efficiency and reduce the labor cost. Furthermore, industry autonomy based on school uniforms, military uniforms and work uniforms was introduced. It is necessary to realize industry autonomy through the extension of producer responsibility.

Conclusions and Prospect The management of waste textiles in China is still at the primary stage of the legal system, and the quality control of waste textiles in standard specifications has not formed a close-loop management. Therefore, the laws and regulations of waste textiles need to be specialized and the standard specifications need to be systematized. The regulations on recycling of waste textiles should be formulated, the application of waste textiles should be widened, and the inspection and testing methods of waste textiles should be strengthened. For the future development trend of recycling waste textiles, the detection technology should be innovated with accuracy, timeliness and online as the main factors. The social supervision comes from the consciousness of the industry and even the whole people. Finally, the review pointed out that the legal system, standardization system and social supervision are whole, and accelerating the improvement of national environmental protection awareness is the key to promote the development of waste textiles recycling economy and realizing remote cloud automated production.

Key words: waste textile, standard system, infrared spectroscopy detection, regenerated fiber identification, recycling economy, supervision and inspection system