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The Conversation
The Conversation
Science
Timo Rissanen, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney

Brands are leaning on 'recycled' clothes to meet sustainability goals. How are they made? And why is recycling them further so hard?

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Today we make more clothing than ever before. And the driver for this is primarily economic, rather than human need. Over the past decade, the term “circular economy” has entered the fashion industry lexicon, wherein materials are made to be reused and recycled by design.

Yet we haven’t seen the same level of recycling in fashion as we have in other spaces – such as with plastic recycling, for instance. And this is mainly because clothing-to-clothing recycling is much more difficult.

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