Recycling specialist Usha Yarns expands offering
07/07/2022
The company offers its yarns in more than 100 colours. They are composed of 60% recycled cotton from post-industrial waste and 40% recycled polyester from beverage bottles. The yarns are not dyed, as fabric offcuts are segregated by colour before shredding and spinning. Its feedstock comes from T-shirt making factories and it has developed a mechanical defiberising process that allows it to maintain a reasonably good quality fibre.
Usha Yarns has its own testing equipment to ensure chemical compliance and colour consistency. Every lot is said to be tested, before processing and once spun into yarn.
“Our next goal is to mainstream post-consumer denim waste,” said Mr Gupta. These are currently recycled into yarns suitable for upholstery. “This means every item of clothing can have two or three different lives, before a final stage of chemical recycling when mechanical recycling is no longer possible,” he added.
To scale up this new venture, the company is looking for brand and retail partners that can implement take back systems. Mr Gupta also mentioned the importance of designing for recycling. “If a company wants to go all the way, it needs to implement ecodesign principles to make its products recyclable,” he pointed out.
Photo: selection of fabrics made from post consumer jeans
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