Specialty Fabrics Review August 2024 - 68

RECYCLING ALREADY WANTED
Even without a legislative requirement,
Steve Lister, chief financial officer of
South Carolina-based Leigh Fibers, says
there is a push for textile recycling. " As
a general statement, neither consumers
nor textile manufacturers are sitting
idly by, waiting for legislation to drive
sustainability, " Lister says. " There is
a level of awareness and engagement
that encompasses every element of the
global textile supply chain, contributing
to a level of collaboration that is rare,
if not unheard of, to address the
complexity of the challenge. "
Leigh Fibers, founded in 1922,
offers mechanical recycling of textiles,
which are turned into products for
industries including automotive,
acoustic insulation and sporting
equipment. Mechanical recycling
uses physical processing techniques
including the shredding of textiles
into smaller pieces to recycle preand
postconsumer textiles into new
recycled yarns or other formats,
which then can reenter the supply
chain. Leigh Fibers is a sister company
to Revive Fiber, formerly Martex
Fiber, a textile waste trading company
founded in 1975.
TACKLING THE TEXTILE ISSUE
Textile waste is continuing to pile up
year after year, which complicates
the problems. " We're making about
the same amount [of textile items]
and we're throwing away about the
same amount every year, " says Karla
Magruder, founder of Accelerating
Circularity, a nonprofit focused on
building textile-to-textile recycling
systems at commercial scale through a
collaborative, stakeholder-led approach.
She says modified collection systems
need to be established. " Today, when
we have clothes we don't want anymore,
we bring them to Goodwill or put them
in a drop box. But there needs to be a
system for collecting everything. "
Many items that could be recycled
are ending up in landfills. " If an item
has a stain or a hole, it's certainly
functional for recycling, " Magruder
says. " At Accelerating Circularity,
we don't want anything to go to a
landfill or incinerator right away. Our
vision is a world where textiles are no
longer wasted. " Through a Walmart
Foundation grant, the organization
is working with Goodwill to turn
unsellable textile donations into
recycling feedstock.
Achieving Accelerating Circularity's
Established in 1922, Leigh Fibers offers mechanical recycling of textiles, which are turned
into products for industries including automotive, acoustic insulation and sporting equipment.
This spring it purchased the operating assets of textile waste trading company Martex Fiber
and rebranded the business as Revive Fiber. Images: Leigh Fibers
68 SPECIALTY FABRICS REVIEW / August 2024
vision is easier said than done, as
Magruder herself points out. " You can't
just put [discarded textiles] on the curb
because if you do, they'll get damp
and dirty and that's not good recycling
feedstock. And once it is collected, the

Specialty Fabrics Review August 2024

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