Concretely, the principle consists in breaking down the vegetable fibre of cotton (cellulose) in order to obtain smaller elements. The fabrics are then soaked in sulfuric acid. Photo: AFP
What if we were able to recover cotton from used clothing and turn it into nylon or lycra? This is the surprising idea of Swedish researchers, who have developed an environmentally friendly method to convert textile cotton into glucose, which in turn can be used to make other fabrics.
Did you know that even when you donate clothes, they are likely to end up in a landfill or incinerator? To avoid this fate befalling our cotton clothes (a material whose production has a heavy impact), scientists at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Lund in Sweden are currently working on a method to recycle the cotton from used clothes.
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