Here’s how used fabrics can be recycled to make new garments. #Upcycling #Clothing #Fabric

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[chatic_neutral_system]

Remember that recycle is that last of the three Rs. Focus on reducing waste and reusing old clothes before considering recycling them, especially if they are mendable or still fit you. You can paint them with fabric paint, embroider, patch, upcyle or tie dye them if you want something fresh but try and use what you have if you can

[Ravenswalk]

If you look at recycled clothing you will find years ago a processes called Shoddy and Mungo. Done in my home town over a hundred years ago garments were taken broken down and reformed in to cloth. I can remember my Mum taking clothing items to be sold at the textile mill by the pound which was then recycled this was in the early sixties in the then Called Heavy Woollen District in West Yorkshire.

[Platymapuss]

That's so cool! And a great idea for recycling clothing.

[paranoiarpincess]

I doubt anyone working on/with this machine will ever see this comment, but not only should you just sell the fibers as yarns and threads for knitting and/or weaving, but this would be amazing as a vending style machine where you put in a few bucks, feed in the damaged clothing, pick a style of new garment you want, and hit "print" lol.

Because it costs money, people would still donate perfectly fine clothing they no longer want to thrift stores. You could even open a charity type project where people could feed their damaged clothing in for free, and it would go through the process but put the yarn in a special container reserved for the machine to run after hours to know sweaters and whatever is needed for like the homeless for example.

I have SO many ideas for a machine like this and would absolutely LOVE to help make them real.

[clarionclear]

Unfortunately, making new poly cloth has become cheaper than recycling so a lot of clothing recycling plants have closed. I learned this in 2018 from an article by Bloomberg called "Nobody Wants Your Old Clothes." Recycling is fantastic, but hopefully one day more will be done to address the causes of excessive clothing waste instead of just the symptoms.

[carennorthcutt]

I work in a thrift store. Many times we get unserviceable clothing that is sent to “bale” (as in a cotton bale, a bale of wool, etc).. I was told that “bale” is then sent to China. I have no way to prove if that is true or not. We are sending raw resource material to a place that accepts that raw material for next to nothing, since it is considered unsellable here. Why aren’t we doing this? Keep the raw resource material here.
Thanks, Brandon.

[andreevaillancourt]

It's about time. All old clothes need to be taken care of this way.

[debramyers]

I actually found at Joann fabrics they have a brand of yarn that’s made from either 100% recycled polyester, or a recycled polyester cotton blend.

[gaijininja]

The biggest mistake as clothing transitioned from natural fibres into plastic was mixing different materials. By adding cotton to polyester (PET) nylon, etc, they actually prevent them from being recycled like any other plastic. This new method now adds cotton, meaning an easily recyclable material is now land fill the next time it’s thrown out. Even mixed synthetic fibres could be heated in an oxygen free fractionation tower and turned back into oil. But having natural fibres in the mic means carbon and oxygen in the system.

[pattydemnicki]

Thank you factory workers for all the hard work you do and God bless each and every one of you 🙏

[Theaceofspace]

Maybe we could focus on growing sustainable clothing like cotton or hemp and other plant fibres that are easily recyclable, and just reduce the pesticides used by engineering the crops to become more resistant to pests.

I just feel this will only ever be able to tackle a fraction of the waste if we continue to make the majority of clothing from plastics

[Annie_Annie__]

If you’re a knitter or crocheter, there are *LOTS* of brands that sell yarn made out of recycled fibers.

Some are recycled polyester, some are recycled cotton, and I’m sure there’s other fibers out there too.

They come in just about every weight too. I’ve seen everything from fingering to bulky.

So it you wanted to get in on this recycled fiber clothing idea, there’s lots of options to make something yourself.

[asavedsinner]

As a crocheter, this is fascinating!!

[KristieDS]

I'm so in awe. Bless these brains. Times are a changin’!

[carolhewett]

Resulting in short fibers which explains why clothing "pills" after two washes making it cheap looking. Better to have a new, long, natural fiber and use the item with care for years.

[piccolobella]

Best, most USEFUL idea everrtt !! Theres millions of pieces of wasted clothing / fabric every year, that just get tossed onto the dump piles. This should go a long way to remedy that wasteful madness. 🥰

[JillH]

Fabric made with recycled fibres was known in past centuries as 'shoddy', and it’s where we get the term that means not very good quality. Hopefully these new garments will be much better quality.

[vhelma]

Finally!! All fast fashion stores should offer this type of recycling services

[YoungGandalf]

Is it done with just one piece of clothing at a time? If you mixed different colored clothes together, would all the new clothes turn out a brown/grey?

[Eternal_Hope_Q]

Step 1...look at the clothes you LOVE to wear (the ones you reach for most) and have a REALLY good think about WHY you love them (style, fabric, comfort)
Step 2...in future buy similar clothes like that.
This creates much less recycled clothing as you wont end up with as many clothes tht are vought/never worn/thrown out.
I did this a few years ago and now I make myself clothes (I know its not for everyone) that I love to wear and they last for decades!
70% of my wardrobe is handmade and natural fibres.
As I age I know I will have to re-evaluate my preferences but so far its working with hardly any wasted clothes 👍
In the old days when all clothes were handmade they had to make sure they would last, we can learn something from times gone by!