Recycling of Waste Polyester to Promote New Development of Circular Economy in Chemical Fiber Industry

　　In recent years, as the traditional pillar industry of the national economy, the textile industry has developed rapidly, and the average annual resource consumption has increased at a double-digit rate. At present, China's annual fiber consumption has reached 53 million tons, accounting for more than 70% of the world's total. With the rapid development of the textile industry, problems such as insufficient supply of raw materials and shortage of resources have become increasingly prominent. In addition to mulberry silk, 30% of cotton and 70% of wool in textile raw materials need to be imported, and there is also a large gap in the supply of basic raw materials for fibers (such as pulp, caprolactam, acrylonitrile, xylene, etc.). The shortage of resources has prompted the industry to constantly seek new raw materials, among which the recycling of waste polyester is the main renewable resource that can be used in the textile industry.

Polyester (PET), that is, polyethylene terephthalate, is one of the general-purpose plastics, mainly used to prepare fibers, films and bottles. According to statistics, since 2003, the global PET production capacity has expanded at an average annual rate of about 9%, while China's PET production capacity has exceeded 20 million tons as early as 2008, becoming the world's largest PET production and consumption country. With the rapid growth of PET polyester products, a large amount of PET waste is generated, which has caused tremendous pressure on the social ecological environment. Therefore, recycling waste polyester to generate recycled fibers can not only solve the problem of shortage of raw materials in textile enterprises, but also alleviate solid waste pollution. This is a sustainable development path for society and enterprises to achieve a win-win situation, said Li Jian, executive director of Jiangxi Ganxinyuan Renewable New Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ganxin Textile").

Recycled fiber plays a major role in PET recycling and is widely used in clothing, furniture, shopping bags, office supplies, daily necessities, civil engineering materials and other fields. Ganxin textile is an environmental protection enterprise mainly producing recycled fiber. Founded in 2004, the company is mainly engaged in the production and sales of recycled chemical fiber, yarn, environmental protection non-woven fabric and its products, forming a large-scale comprehensive textile enterprise with recycled polyester staple fiber and recycled polyester single yarn as the core products. What is more worth mentioning is that Ganxin Textile, as a pioneer enterprise in the recycling of resources, personally participates in the recycling of waste plastics at the front end, and is committed to the technological research and development of waste PET conversion and recycled chemical fiber, so as to truly realize the circular economy industrial model based on the recycling of waste polyester. This is all due to the company's founder Li Jian's forward-looking and intelligent management. He said: waste recycling is an effective way to alleviate the shortage of resources. Today's renewable resources industry is constantly developing and progressing, and the downstream is gradually extending and integrating upstream. Therefore, it is in line with the future development of the industry to connect the recycling of waste plastics and the production of recycled fiber products. At present, the products of Ganxin Textile Co., Ltd. enjoy a high status among consumers, and the company has established long-term and stable cooperative relations with many retailers and agents.

In addition to the management wisdom in the industry, Li Jian also has extensive research in the field of waste polyester recycling. He led the company's technicians to make continuous breakthroughs in the research of waste plastic processing equipment and technology, and formed a number of national authorized patents, all of which are used in the important links of waste plastic recycling and generating recycled fibers. Taking the recycling of waste polyester bottles to generate recycled PET fabric (Recycled PET Fabric) as an example, the process is: polyester bottle recycling → polyester bottle quality inspection and separation → polyester bottle slicing → spinning, cooling and gathering → Recycled PET yarn → weaving into fabric. jian li further introduced that our equipment and technology are to improve the crushing effect and efficiency of polyester bottles and the detection rate of impurities (mainly metal impurities) when separating polyester bottle pieces, this ensures a high conversion rate from waste plastics to recycled fiber products.

Recycled PET fabric (Recycled PET Fabric) products because of its low-carbon source and waste recycling, is a successful model in the field of recycling, favored by developed countries in Europe and America. In addition, the environmentally friendly yarn made of this fabric has passed the authoritative certification of the US SCS Environmental Protection Agency and Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the European Oeko-Tex Standard 100 ecological environmental protection certification and international GRS recycling standards, with higher international recognition.

On August 17, 2017, five ministries (Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Commerce, Development and Reform Commission, General Administration of Customs, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine) adjusted and revised the current catalogue of solid waste prohibited from import, the catalogue of solid waste that can be used as raw materials for import restrictions and the catalogue of solid waste that can be used as raw materials for non-import restrictions: 24 kinds of solid waste in four categories, including waste textile raw materials and waste plastics, the catalogue of solid wastes that can be used as raw materials for import is adjusted to be included in the catalogue of solid wastes prohibited from import, and will be officially implemented on December 31, 2017. The introduction of the policy of banning the import of foreign garbage is generally conducive to the maintenance of the national ecological environment and people's health, but it has intensified the domestic demand for PET raw materials. In this regard, Li Jian said: at present, the construction of domestic waste recycling system still lags behind the development needs of the industry, so greatly reducing the variety and quantity of solid waste imports can effectively promote the development of domestic solid waste recycling industry in the long run. it is conducive to the industrial upgrading of the recycling industry and improving the level of industrial green manufacturing, of course, it also needs to constantly improve the recycling technology of waste polyester.

From the in-depth research on the recycling of waste polyester to the pioneering application of the circular economy model in the recycled chemical fiber industry, industry experts headed by Li Jian are promoting the reduction of waste polyester waste, recycling and recycling, and the application industry-The upgrading of the industrial structure of recycled chemical fiber/textile enterprises continues to provide new "green" solutions to alleviate environmental pollution, resource constraints, and contribute to reducing carbon emissions.