Recycling the rainbow
A close-up of Dr. Jenny Murray-Jones' artwork. What if your unwanted clothing could be turned into art? A research project at Deakin University has developed a world-first process to recycle textile waste into pigment, investigating its use in colouring new textiles, vegan leather and even art.
The average Victorian creates 28kg of textile waste each year. That's more than 100 t-shirts. Although around 95% of the clothes sent to landfill could have been reused or recycled, only 7% of textile waste is recycled.
In addition to taking up space in landfill, textiles also consume 98 million tonnes of non-renewable resources globally each year, like oil to produce synthetic fibres, fertilisers to grow cotton, and chemicals to produce dye.
Textile waste can be difficult to recycle due to the blends of materials and different colours. Thanks to a grant from Sustainability Victoria, Deakin University’s Associate Professor Rangam Rajkhowa has designed a solution that not only diverts this waste from landfill but adds value to it.
A leader in the field of textile recycling, Rangam and his team have developed a process that involves physically grinding textile waste into a fine powder which can be used as pigment.
“We’re taking lower-end textile waste that cannot be recycled otherwise and using green chemistry to break it down into particles," Rangam says.
"We’re trying to use minimal energy and resources, so we are not only reducing textile waste, but it’s also a sustainable process."
"And nothing is left over. If you start with one kilogram of textile waste, it will produce one kilogram of pigment.”
As part of Geelong Design Week, the results of this research will be on display at the Perpetual Pigments exhibition featuring artwork created by renowned First Nations artists using the recycled pigment.
Yorta Yorta/Baraparapa woman and Geelong artist Dr Jenny Murray-Jones compares the new medium to working with watercolour paints.
“My mother was a really good watercolourist,” Jenny says.
“She would teach me about using the canvas or paper as your white and this lesson applies to using these pigments as well because we don’t have a white.
“If Mum was still alive, I’d love to get her to give these pigments a try because I know she’d do a good job.”
A close-up of Kiri Tawhai's artwork. Fellow artist and Noongar/Ngapuhi/Ngati Tuwharetoa woman Kiri Tawhai loves what the recycled pigment represents.
“As an artist, I have a certain level of environmental guilt around the number of paintbrushes I go through for example,” she says.
“It’s always been important to me to be in the space of reusing and recycling as much as possible.
“So the fact that we’re taking fast fashion and turning it into a paint pigment is a really amazing thing.”
The Deakin University research team is now looking into commercialising this innovation so even more textile waste can be diverted from landfill, benefiting both the economy and our environment.
This project is one of 22 supported by Sustainability Victoria under the Circular Economy Markets Fund: Materials awarded to research institutes, industry and business to develop and commercialise innovative products and processes that incorporate recycled materials.
In addition to supporting new markets for recycled products, these projects are expected to leverage an additional $6.7 million in investment from the sector and create up to 20 new jobs.