Sustainable process design for circular fashion: Advances in sustainable chemistry for textile waste valorisation

Textile waste is a growing concern globally. While the most efficient solution is to prevent waste generation, the valorisation of textile waste streams into value-added products is imperative to divert textile products away from saturated landfills at their end. Rapid innovation in various valorisation technologies to deal with the large variety of natural and synthetic textiles and their blends, such as cotton-polyester, is promising. However, it is critical to benchmark and compare these emerging technologies before scale-up to ensure a good fit for the local circular economy. In this opinion piece, we stress the application of life cycle assessment and related approaches for systematic evaluation of the environmental, social, and economic implications to steer the selection of appropriate textile waste valorisation pathways based on the nature of the waste stream and the demand for the valorised product in the local economy.