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Hong Kong research group is scaling up city’s ‘green machine’ to recycle more textile, clothing waste and support cotton farming

  • Hong Kong’s first industrial-scale ‘green machine’ will have the capacity to process one tonne (1,000kg) of textile waste per day from next year
  • A truckload of discarded clothes is burnt or sent to landfill every second around the world, according to the non-profit Ellen MacArthur Foundation

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Hong Kong’s first pre-industrial sized green machine system was installed in a factory in Tai Po in September 2018. Photo: Handout
Martin Choi
Hong Kong is enhancing its “green machine” to take on the big task of finding the best solutions for recycling textile and clothes, and the key materials in a global fashion industry that has become a significant source of environmental degradation and pollution, researchers said.

The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel, a government-funded group, is aiming to scale up the machine’s capability of separating blended textiles into materials for new clothing and other industrial uses, while at the same time helping farmers with cotton production, CEO Edwin Keh said in an interview.

“Most modern garments are made from blended materials, and the two most common materials are polyester and cotton,” he said. “This is where we focused our efforts. If you do not separate the materials, it’s very hard to reuse them, certainly not for any high-value application.”

Edwin Keh, CEO of Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel. Photo: Handout
Edwin Keh, CEO of Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel. Photo: Handout

Hong Kong’s new industrial-scale “green machine” will be launched in the second quarter of 2024 at the institute’s research space known as Open Lab in Tseung Kwan O, which will have the capacity to process one tonne (1,000kg) of textiles per day, Keh added.

The pilot green machine system was installed in Tai Po in September 2018, with an initial capacity to recycle around 100 to 150kg of garments per day. The process uses only heat, water and citric acid, with a recovery rate of 97 per cent for polyester fibres in two hours, according to the institute’s website.

Petroleum-based polyester is the fastest-growing material in garment manufacturing, making up more than half of clothes produced globally. A lot of recycled materials can be for industrial uses, such as insulation, padding and carpeting, he added.

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