By Oluwaseyi Otitoju
The economic opportunity inherent in responsible circularity by turning textile waste into reusable fabric to service various industries are immense.
With heightened climate concerns and the increasing pressure on global supply chains, the nation’s fashion and textile industry is being compelled to confront one of the most persistent challenges – waste. Textile waste consists of nearly new garments prematurely discarded, old clothes and fabric cut-offs generated on a daily basis by tailoring shops and fashion houses. Textile waste is gradually becoming an environmental liability as well as an untapped economic resource.
In Nigeria, there are thousands of micro, small and medium-scale tailoring enterprises operating across the nation’s urban and semi-urban centres and circularity as a concept offers a practical pathway to transforming textile waste into value added raw materials, reducing import dependency on fabrics and textiles while strengthening the nation’s domestic industries. This is an agenda championed by the Raw Materials Research and Development Council, RMRDC.
The scale of textile waste across the nation is generated primarily in the informal textile manufacturing sector and consequently remains underreported. In the nation’s major cities of Lagos, Aba, Onitsha, Ibadan, Kaduna, Kano and Abuja where huge tailoring clusters exist, they generate slightly substantial volumes of cut offs from fabric daily. The cut offs include cotton, polyester, lace, Ankara, adire, denim, chiffon and blended textiles.
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Currently, an estimated ninety million tonnes of textile waste are generated annually, with a dismal 15 percent is recycled. In Nigeria, the sorting and recovery infrastructure remains limited, the proportion of textiles reused or recycled is believed to be significantly lower. As a result, most fabric waste is consequently burnt openly, releasing harmful emissions; dumped in landfills and waterways or left to clog drainage systems thus worsening flooding in the nation’s urban areas.
Despite these glaring factors, evidence suggests that more than 60 percent of discarded textiles – tailoring cut offs and lightly used clothing remain reusable / recyclable.
Embedded within this challenge lies a remarkable opportunity of ingenuity, converting properly sorted fabrics into processed recreated fabrics and industrial materials by scientific conversion. This forms the backbone of a circular textile economy. Achieving this goal in Nigeria, will result in a transformation which aligns directly with the mandates of the Council to identify, develop and optimize raw materials and secondary raw materials for sustainable industrial growth.
Transforming textile waste scientifically along the circularity model begins with a proper knowledge of material intelligence and not with machinery. Fabric reuse accurately depends on the proper identification and separation of textile fibres because different fibres respond differently to mechanical, thermal and chemical processes.
The proper classification of fabrics follows the identification of natural fibres- cotton, linen and wool, synthetic fibres – polyester, nylon and acrylic and blended textiles -cotton/polyester, stretch fabrics and lace blends. An equally critical part of sorting is colour sorting. This reduces the need for re-dyeing and chemical treatment later in the process. This stage of the process drastically reduces the overall use water, chemical input, and energy consumption by over 30% in recycling operations. Sorting the fabrics should ideally be made an integral part of the nation’s tailoring clusters. This integration can be done through formally co-opting members of these tailoring clusters directly into the sorting process through a CSR programme that is designed to make the process of sorting textile waste and cut-offs a corporate social responsibility that these clusters engage in. this will require training them to identify, sort and grade this waste according to the types of fabrics as well as the colours. This step creates the foundation for value recovery rather than simply disposing of the waste through the various methods currently in use.
There are basically three (3) methods by which fabric waste is recreated into reusable materials. Generally speaking, recreated fabrics have applications in already existing tailoring and fashion hubs and have the potential for establishing indigenous industries which require these raw materials in their industrial processes. These methods are the mechanical fibre reclamation, a process that’s suitable for natural and blended fabrics. Natural and blended fabrics are fabrics such as cotton, wool and many blended textiles.
Reclaiming textile fibres through a mechanical process involves sorting the fabrics and shredding them into a fibrous form; cleaning the fibres and blending them or consistency and re-spinning the fibres into yarns or compressing them into non-woven sheets. The recreated yarn can be used for quilting, rugs, mats and upholstery while the non-woven fabrics are ideal for insulation, padding and industrial felts. The recreated yarn has a direct application for craft, furniture and mattress industries. The fabric conversion process requires modest energy input and is particularly suitable for decentralised processing facilities.
The next method of fabric conversion is the thermal and melt process which is suitable for synthetic fabrics e.g. polyester and nylon. Both fabrics respond best to thermal recycling processes. The out puts from the thermal and melt processing are recreated polyester fibres. Non-woven industrial fabrics and reinforced materials for construction and automotive use. These fabrics have applications in the Lagos fashion districts and industrial textile users in the construction and manufacturing sectors. This fabric conversion process allows synthetic textile waste to re-enter high-value industrial cycles rather than polluting landfills / waste dumps.
The third process in fabric conversion is the Chemical fibre regeneration which is best suited for high-quality fibres like high quality cotton and cellulose -based textiles. Chemical recycling enables fibre regeneration at near-virgin quality.
Fibres regenerated chemically are first dissolved using controlled chemical solvents, and the fibres are regenerated through filtration and re-spinning. The end products include, recreated cotton and cellulose fibres as well as fine yarns suitable for apparel and premium textiles which find applications in premium fashion houses, and research-led pilot plants as well as export -oriented textile production. Of all three processes, the thermal and melt process is capital intensive and yet represents a future forward opportunity for Nigeria’s textile research ecosystem to find a Nigerian answer to this process so the same fabric recreation of textile waste is achieved with minimal cost.
To effectively apply scientific knowledge to Nigeria’s circular clusters it’s actually better strategically matches each process to each cluster.
Firstly, the Aba and South-East garment clusters will benefit much more from mechanical fibre recovery feeds, quilting, patchwork, rug-making, and non-woven padding industries-supporting women and youth-led enterprises.
Secondly, the Lagos fashion and design ecosystem is best suited to the Chemical and thermal recycling enables high-end designers to incorporate waste into premium recreated fabrics, reinforcing sustainable fashion branding.
The furniture, construction and industrial sectors will also find relevant applications of the recreated non-woven textiles in the production of furniture upholstery and cushioning, acoustic panels as well as thermal and sound insulation.
Thirdly, the natural fibre waste processing method supports regenerated cotton padding, insulation, and acoustic materials. This links agriculture, textile and construction in an interconnected way. This triple cross-sectorial application strengthens the industrial resilience of recreated textiles from fabric waste. It’s also a strong indication of the sustainability of this approach to directly deal with a potential menace of environmental
With adequate research and policy, the Council’s role can be both strategic and pivotal. The Council has the capacity to standardize textile waste classification protocols as it has done with the bill on a minimum of 30% value addition to the nation’s raw materials before exportation, establish pilot fibre recycling and regeneration facilities, support and facilitate applied R & D in low cost, locally adaptable technologies for various processes, develop the capacities of the SMEs and cooperatives involved in the entire fabric waste recycling process to ensure its optimisation and sustainability.
Adopting a scientific approach to circularity aligns with SDGs 8 which addresses job creation, 9 which refers to innovation-driven industrial development, 11 reduced urban waste pressure, 12 responsible production systems and 13 which is to lower emissions and reduced resource extraction will ensure that Nigeria will move beyond managing fabric waste to materials engineering and industrial transformation by embedding science into circularity in fabric waste recycling.
The strength of circularity lies not simply in the reuse of fabric waste, but in the scientific recreation of this waste. When the fabrics are properly sorted out before they are transformed into recreated fabrics, non-woven textiles and regenerated yarn, fabric waste becomes a raw material of Nigerian origin which can be exported to meet the growing needs of indigenous fabrics which can offer a wide variety of colours and textures of African origin which inherently offers strategic sustainability and scalability.
