플라스틱 병에서 폴리에스터까지: 재활용 여정

### 재활용 폴리에스테르의 여정: 플라스틱 병에서 지속 가능한 패션까지
* 인도 기업 Shree Renga는 **하루에 약 150만 개의 플라스틱 병을 폴리에스테르 원단으로 바꿀 수** 있으며, 향후 몇 년 안에 **생산량을 3배로 늘리는 것**을 목표로 하고 있습니다.
* 🛍 아디다스, 나이키, 셰인 같은 패션 브랜드는 의류 라인에 **재활용 폴리에스터를 점점 더 많이 사용**하여 보다 지속 가능한 제품으로 마케팅하고 있습니다.
* 🔍 이 공정은 페트병을 수거하고 분류한 다음 **분쇄, 세척, 분리**하여 **투명한 플레이크**를 얻는 것으로 시작됩니다.
* 🌈 플레이크를 컬러 안료로 녹여 방적기를 통해 압출하여 필라멘트를 만든 다음, 이를 **늘리고 압착하여 섬유로 자릅니다.**
* 🌍 2020년 전 세계에서 생산된 폴리에스터는 **약 250만 대의 쓰레기 트럭을 채울 수 있는 양**이며, 그 중 **15% 미만이 재활용 소재**입니다.
* 🔄 폴리에스테르 의류 재활용은 다른 소재를 분리해야 하기 때문에 어렵고, 가장 일반적인 방법은 **다운사이클링**을 하는 것입니다.
* 💡 H&M과 같은 연구 기관과 기업들은 순환 시스템을 구축하기 위해 **섬유 대 섬유 재활용 기술**에 투자하고 있습니다.
* ♻ 재활용 폴리에스터는 **버진 폴리에스테르보다 배출량이 약 70% 적**지만, 업계에서는 여전히 지속 가능한 관행에 더 많은 투자를 해야 합니다.

인도의 슈리 렌가는 매일 150만 개의 플라스틱 병을 폴리에스테르로 전환하여 지속 가능한 의류에 대한 패션 브랜드의 수요를 충족하고 있습니다.

Narrator: These filaments
used to be plastic bottles, and they're being turned into polyester. The fabric makes up more than
half of all of our clothing, and one company in
India called Shree Renga can turn about 1.5 million
plastic bottles into polyester in a single day. 

Senthil: That is going to be
almost more than tripled in the next couple of years. 

Narrator: Turns out, there's
plenty of appetite for it. More and more, fashion brands
like Adidas, Nike, and Shein are trying to increase
the amount of polyester made from recycled
plastics in their lines, often marketing them as more sustainable. But why is so much of what we wear made from plastic to begin with? And how do you turn a
bottle into clothing? The Shree Renga company spins about 25 metric tons of
polyester on a daily basis. The founder, K Sankar

is proud of every filament
his factory spins. But it took him decades
of trying to get here. I felt like doing something to the society by doing recycling. Narrator: Today, he runs the business alongside his son, Senthil, who quit his job in IT to help his dad. Senthil: I wanted to be an entrepreneur, and I wanted to be an
entrepreneur in India. Narrator: Globally, we
produce about 600 million of these bottles every year, and most of them are not recycled. In India, waste pickers collect and deposit them at sorting
sites like this one, where workers crush
and bale them for sale. Every month, Shree Renga buys
about 900 metric tons of trash from companies like this one. But all it really wants is PET. That's short for
polyethylene terephthalate, one of the most common types of plastic. At Shree Renga's factory

the first step to getting it is separating the valuable bottles from the caps, labels, and glue. Mixing in other plastics
could ruin the final material, but getting to pure PET
is pretty time-consuming. Senthil: We have a lot of
advanced sensing technologies, which are used to separate PET,
PVC, all the other plastics. Narrator: Bottle caps are
usually made from polypropylene, a kind of plastic that Shree
Rengao doesn't recycle, so they sell them to another company that makes lead-acid battery cases. And all of the dirt and sand they collect from washing the bottles is pressed with ash to make bricks that
decorate the factory floor. Then, machines crush
the bottles into flakes. Bagged flakes are then loaded onto trucks and delivered to another
part of the factory. Here, they are crushed again
and passed over a sieve shaker, a machine that sorts the flakes by size, making sure they're no
larger than 14 millimeters.

Smaller particles falling
to the shaker's bottom are used again to make PET pellets. But the flakes still
aren't 100% separated. After a quick rinse, machines transfer them into a float tank. Here, the PET will sink, and other plastics can
be skimmed off the top. They're then washed 10 times to remove any remaining dirt and glue. Senthil: Nothing is
wasted in this factory. That water is again used back. Narrator: The plastic is
rinsed one final time, leaving behind clear flakes, which are dried and
loaded into these sacks. Now, it's time to turn them into fiber. And PET is uniquely
suited for this purpose. It has long chains of molecules
that hold tightly together, creating lightweight,
flexible, and strong materials. The length of those molecular chains determines whether the plastic is used for things like bottles,
packaging, or textiles. Chemically, PET and
polyester are the same thing.

Making fibers starts by melting the plastic flakes with colored pigments, a technique known as dope-dyeing. The combined goop is then pushed through a spinneret, a metal plate with hundreds of small holes that can be adjusted for thickness. When it melts and comes out, it comes in the colored form. We don't use a single drop of water. We don't use energy for our coloring process. Narrator: Shree Renga currently makes 200 different colors of fiber. As they exit, the filaments cool and dry. After every use, the plates are cleaned using high-frequency sound waves, which create microscopic bubbles that collapse and remove anything stuck to the spinneret. The fibers are then stretched using a series of rollers, which deposit them into these large buckets. Shutting down and restarting these machines is energy-intensive and expensive, so they have to run nonstop throughout the day. Senthil: If you have to stop,

then it takes a long time
for us to reboot again. Narrator: Workers weigh the drums and bring them into this
area called the draw line. Here, 60 to 70 barrels
are simultaneously routed through a series of eyelets, pulling them into parallel strips. Polyester tends to hold
static electricity, so the fibers are dipped
in a starch-based lubricant to avoid sticking together. Another series of rollers makes them up to four times longer, and yet another set of heated
rollers stabilizes the fiber into its stretched state. This machine crimps the fibers, giving them a wavy pattern and making them easier to combine with other textiles like cotton. The finished fibers travel
to the top of this platform, where they are cut down
to a manageable size. Finally, they are compressed,
baled, and shipped to another company
for further processing. At Sri Kannattal Mills, the fibers are spun into yarns
using a series of machines.

First, workers load them into a bale opener, which uses rollers and spiked drums to loosen the fiber. They weigh the sheet before loading it into a carding machine. It pulls the fiber over wire-covered cylinders that comb through tangles, creating a thin web that is then condensed into a loose rope called sliver. These sliver strands are coiled into large cans. Workers attach them to machines that combine several of the ropes together. Next, the slivers are run through something called a simplex machine. It uses a series of rollers rotating at different speeds to stretch the fibers and make them more parallel. The result is a more compact and uniform rope known as roving, which is ideal for spinning. Workers feed the roving through a spinner that twists it into yarn. Finally, the strands are ring-spun onto bobbins. Senthil and his father used these cones to make their clothing, but before PET was ever woven into T-shirts.

it started out as a lab experiment. When scientists at the
chemical company DuPont developed the first synthetic fibers in the early 20th century, they were celebrated as
major scientific achievements that could replace silk and cotton. Narrator: Before the breakthrough, the US imported over 90%
of its silk from Japan, using it mostly to make stockings. But all trades ceased during World War II, collapsing the silk market. After the war, nylon stockings became a
cheap, popular substitute. Narrator: And in the 1950s, polyester was built as a
magical, man-made fabric that wouldn't wrinkle. Narrator: In the 1970s, it
became cheaper than cotton, and fashion brands embraced it. The material was strong,
flexible, easy to dye, resistant to heat and
stains, and quick to dry. In the 1980s, cotton was the world's most popular fiber.

But over the next few decades, polyester came to dominate the industry and is expected to keep growing, with the majority of production outsourced to Southeast Asia. The popularity was fueled by
fast-fashion brands like Gap, H&M, Zara, and Forever 21. In 2020, the world produced enough polyester to fill about 2.5 million garbage trucks. Less than 15% of that came from recycled material. And one study showed that a single truckload's
worth of clothing goes into a landfill or
incinerator every second. To bring that stat down, more and more brands are
working with recycled polyester made from plastic bottles, including Adidas, Nike,
Zara, and even Shein. In early 2024, more than
120 clothing companies pledged to increase their
use of recycled polyester. Shree Renga launched its own
recycled clothing brand in 2021 called Ecoline. Most pieces are made of
100% recycled polyester.

but sometimes, they're mixed with cotton. Senthil: So once the fiber was made, making yarns and fabrics, and garments was just an extension. Narrator: Everything is still made in the same facilities. Workers connect hundreds
of bobbins to a machine that weaves the yarn
into sheets of fabric, which then head to inspection. Senthil: If there is some
defect that is found, it'll be marked with a marker. And once that marker is
seen in the cutting section, they will cut that portion alone and keep it aside as waste. That again gets recycled. Narrator: All of the fabrics
they use are laid out, marked, and cut into
various shapes for garments. To add a design, Shree Renga
uses a sublimation printer. And once the sheets are out, we place them into panels in
our heat transfer machine. Narrator: This device
applies heat and pressure to transfer dyes directly
onto the polyester.

The company sells 400,000 garments a year and plans to triple production by 2026. Senthil: We are boldly betting on this, expanding our capacities, thinking that the future is going to be sustainable fashion. And we want to be well placed when that wave comes. Narrator: In 2023, the family received a huge boost after India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, wore one of their vests, known as a sadri. I was literally in tears. My product is worn by the prime minister of the country. Something wonderful. Senthil: It's something to convince someone to wear something out of trash. And that we've been able to do with Ecoline. Narrator: Clothes made from recycled polyester are often advertised as good for the environment, but they still come with an impact. Washing any synthetic fiber can introduce microplastics less than 5 millimeters in length

into our waterways. Some studies suggest that
synthetic fibers contribute more than a third of all
microplastics in the ocean. And if it ends up in a
landfill, river, or ocean, it won't break down. To top it off, recycling polyester isn't as easy as recycling
a plastic bottle. Polyester is often mixed with
things like cotton, spandex, chemicals, and dyes that must
be separated before recycling. The cheapest and simplest
method for recycling clothing involves shredding it, but that creates shorter fibers that need to be blended with virgin ones to make new clothes. So they are typically
downcycled into carpets and stuffing for insulation. In 2020, a research institute in Hong Kong started experimenting with
fiber-to-fiber recycling. It partnered with H&M
to make this machine, which turns used clothes into
new ones in about three days. First, a technician like Emily
Shao examines the garment.

Emily: So today we will recycle an old garment. 
Narrator: This ozone chamber sanitizes the fabric in about an hour. Then, Emily removes the buttons, labels, and zippers and cuts the garment so the fabric is easy to work with. The shredder strips the bits of cloth down further. 
Emily: And then I will take out the opened fabrics. 
Narrator: But this part of the process does require some new materials. 
Emily: So we will add some virgin fibers into the yarn to make it stronger. 
Narrator: Another machine mixes that cotton with a recycled skirt. Emily then rolls the mixed fibers into clumps and feeds them into a machine that turns them into what's called a fiber web. The fiber web gets bundled into these snakelike slivers. The slivers are then spun into ply yarn, the building blocks for any new garment. Finally, a machine knits a new sweater based on a computer design.

Shoppers pay about $65 to recycle clothing here. How do we help consumers think about their clothes differently? Well, that's one of the reasons why we have a glass box doing research in a shopping mall. Narrator: The H&M Foundation partnered with the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel. That investment allowed the company to license and install the technology at one of its stores in Stockholm, where the company's headquartered. H&M calls it the Looop. Here, shoppers pay only $18 to see the recycling process in action. That's about the price of a new pair of the brand's sweatpants. Virginia: That's how it comes out. And then this is the only part that has to be removed. Narrator: Virginia, the technician, trims the extra yarn, and the garment is ready to go. It seems like a perfect solution, but it takes three days to recycle just one garment.

A factory like this that can recycle thousands
of tons of clothes a day doesn't exist yet. But H&M says that eventually, this kind of technology
could be a global solution for textile waste. Pascal: The holy grail is
garment-to-garment recycling, and that's for me where, today, most of our investment going to. Narrator: And other large companies are making similar bets. Gap and Zara's parent company, Inditex, recently made major investments
in an American company called Ambercycle. The company developed a chemical process to separate polyester from
dyes and other fabrics, eliminating the need for virgin materials. The idea for Ambercycle is really just, how do you take an old T-shirt and turn it into a new T-shirt, instead of using natural resources? The most difficult thing
is scaling up the process from pilot plant scale, to tens of thousands of T-shirts. That successive scale-up is really hard.

Narrator: It's especially hard when virgin polyester is so much cheaper and easier to use than new recycling technology. Less than 1% of old clothes are recycled to new clothes, so we don't actually have large, or I would say, commercial-scale technology for recycling. Narrator: Meanwhile, fast-fashion shows no signs of slowing down, and it's expected synthetic fibers could make up nearly three-fourths of all textile production by 2030. Urška: Brands in the industry wider needs to invest more into fiber-to-fiber recycling. But at the same time, we need to realize that this is not a silver bullet, you know? Narrator: Recycled polyester generate about 70% less emissions than virgin. And Shree Renga has several certifications, ensuring it limits the use of harmful chemicals and actually recycles the trash it buys. From the end product, you can trace everything back to the origin.

And we wanted that to be
the core ethos of our brand, and we positioned it that way. Narrator: Some advocates say it's better to just recycle bottles into new bottles, since that can be done around 11 times. But less than 10% of all plastic actually makes it to a recycling center. So for now, Senthil and his dad are happy to save any plastic they can from landfills or the oceans, even if it's only temporary. Senthil: For us, when you
make it into a garment, it takes a longer time for
it to reach the dustbin. Narrator: Though there's
a lot of work to be done, he thinks Shree Renga is well positioned to make the most out of plastic trash. Senthil: Whether it's
recycling or renewable energy, this is the year of sustainability. And I think we are in the right space.

How 1.5 Million Plastic Bottles Are Turned Into Clothing Every Day | World Wide Waste

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플라스틱 병에서 폴리에스터로: 혁신 과정

인도의 한 회사인 Shree Renga는 하루에 150만 개의 플라스틱 병을 폴리에스테르 원단으로 만들 수 있으며, 향후 몇 년 안에 생산량을 3배로 늘릴 계획입니다.

아디다스, 나이키 등 주요 패션 브랜드는 지속 가능성 증진을 위해 의류 라인에 재활용 플라스틱을 점점 더 많이 사용하고 있습니다.

이 과정에는 첨단 감지 기술을 사용하여 플라스틱을 분리하고, 병뚜껑과 같은 남은 재료는 다른 회사에 판매하여 용도를 변경합니다.

PET 플라스틱 플레이크는 불순물을 제거하기 위해 일련의 헹굼 및 세척 과정을 거칩니다.

그런 다음 플레이크를 유색 안료로 녹여 방적기를 통과시켜 물이나 추가 에너지를 사용하지 않고 섬유를 만듭니다.

이 섬유를 늘리고, 윤활하고, 안정화시키고, 압착하여 최종 제품을 만든 다음, 원사로 가공하기 위해 절단, 압축, 베일링 및 배송합니다.

섬유에서 패션으로 이어지는 폴리에스터의 여정

폴리에스테르 생산에는 섬유 풀기부터 원사 방적까지 일련의 공정이 포함됩니다.

폴리에스터가 인기 있는 원단으로 부상한 것은 실크와 면을 대체할 합성 섬유로 개발되어 결국 패션 업계에서 지배적인 소재가 된 데서 비롯되었습니다.

주로 동남아시아에서 폴리에스테르가 광범위하게 생산되면서 환경에 대한 우려가 제기되었지만, 의류 브랜드 사이에서 플라스틱 병에서 재활용 폴리에스테르를 사용하는 추세가 증가하고 있습니다.

폴리에스테르 생산 공정과 환경에 미치는 영향

폴리에스테르 생산에는 원사를 직물로 짜고 열과 압력을 가해 염료를 전달하는 과정이 포함되며, 야심찬 확장 계획이 있습니다.

의류에 재활용 폴리에스터를 사용하는 것은 지속 가능한 것으로 홍보되고 있지만, 여전히 수로에서 미세 플라스틱 오염에 기여하고 재활용 과정에서 문제가 있습니다.

폴리에스테르 의류의 가장 일반적인 재활용 방법은 다운사이클링이지만, 보다 지속 가능한 접근을 위해 섬유 대 섬유 재활용을 개발하려는 노력이 있습니다.

의류 재활용 과정과 미래에 미치는 영향

의류 재활용에는 살균, 파쇄, 재활용 섬유와 버진 섬유를 결합하여 새로운 의류를 만드는 과정이 포함되며, H&M의 Looop는 18달러에 재활용 프로세스를 제공합니다.

그러나 현재 기술은 의류 한 벌을 재활용하는 데 3일이 소요되는 등 시간이 많이 걸리며, 전 세계에 영향을 미치기 위해 프로세스를 확장해야 하는 과제가 남아 있습니다.

H&M, Gap, Zara의 모기업과 같은 대기업들은 의류 간 재활용 기술에 투자하여 버진 소재의 필요성을 줄이고 섬유 폐기물을 더 큰 규모로 처리하고 있습니다.

패션 산업에서 섬유 재활용의 과제

현재 버진 폴리에스터는 새로운 재활용 기술보다 비용 효율이 낮아 헌 옷의 재활용 비율은 1% 미만입니다.

패스트 패션의 우세로 인해 합성 섬유 생산이 증가하여 재활용 문제가 더욱 악화될 것으로 예상됩니다.

섬유 대 섬유 재활용과 재활용 폴리에스터를 사용하면 배출량을 줄일 수 있지만, 전체 섬유 재활용률은 여전히 낮음니다.