Textile paper as a circular material

Abstract: Increasing resource efficiency by utilising secondary raw material is one of the key characteristics of a circular economy. Textile dust fibre, a waste generated from textile mechanical recycling has the prospect to be utilised as secondary raw material for producing novel material: textile paper suitable for packaging and other applications. A comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of carrier bags made from one ton of virgin paper, recycled paper and novel textile paper (~22584paper bags with grammage of 100 g/m2 and same dimensions for all 3 types of bags) showed that textile paper bag is more environmentally friendly in terms of carbon footprint. The largest environmental contributors were energy consumed in the pulping and paper making processes, followed by the use of adhesives and printing ink in the conversion process of paper to papercarrier bags. A comparative Techno-economic Assessment (TEA) was carried out for the operating cost of producing the three selected carrier bag types. The analysis conveyed that textile paper bags are more economically attractive, mainly due to the partial substitution of paper fibre with low-cost textile dust fibre. Furthermore, a simple tool was developed with an attempt to assess and compare materials suitability for the circular economy considering life cycle thinking and business perspectives. Assessment of textile paper using the Circular material assessment tool indicated that there is still scope for improvement on the following circularity characteristics of circular material: scarcity of raw material, local supply of resources, clean and non-toxic resources. Textile paper material scored high in the following circularity characteristics: secondary raw material, industrial symbiosis, recycling, resource efficiency in manufacturing and use. In the final step, the textile paper bag was eco-designed through the combined and iterative LCA and TEA approach with the aim to achieve improved scores as a circular material. In order to understand the overall sustainability advantages and trade-offs, further research is recommended on different textile dust fibre grades as well as textile paper performance based on mechanical properties. It is also recommended to investigate textile paper in other applications like one time fashion clothes, reusable paper bags as textile hangers etc.