Research
Selective depolymerization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) for economical closed-loop recycling of mixed textiles
The Brief
- Researchers report a selective depolymerization method for PET recovered from thermally treated mixed textiles.
- The stated goal is recovering polymerization-grade monomers from waste textiles, which the authors describe as a challenge so far.
- The work is published in Nature Communications (doi:10.1038/s41467-026-78713-4).
Why it matters
Recovering monomers of usable quality from mixed textile waste could make closed-loop PET recycling of clothing more economical, according to the paper's framing. Details of the process and its economics are not available in the provided source excerpt.
Who’s affected
- Textile recyclers
- Researchers working on polymer recycling
- #recycling
- #pet
- #textiles
- #depolymerization
- #polymers
Nature Communications, Published online: 07 November 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-78713-4 Recovering polymerization-grade monomers from waste textiles remains challenging. Here the authors report that the depolymerization of PET from thermally treated mixed textiles via…
Timeline
Published online in Nature Communications
nature.com
Selective depolymerization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) for economical closed-loop recycling of mixed textiles