New publication highlights colour removal as a key enabler for circular textile recycling

A new review article by researchers at Aalto University, published in Green Chemistry, explores one of the key challenges in closing the loop for textile recycling: the removal of dyes from post-consumer textile waste. The publication, Color stripping of dyed textile waste, reviews recent advances in colour removal technologies and their potential to improve fibre recovery and enable higher-value recycling pathways for used textiles.

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As textile waste volumes continue to grow, coloured and blended textile streams remain among the most difficult materials to recycle efficiently. Residual dyes can compromise fibre quality, restrict material reuse and reduce the value of recycled outputs. Overcoming this challenge is essential for enabling scalable and economically viable circular textile systems. The review presents a comprehensive assessment of current colour stripping technologies, including chemical, biological, advanced oxidation and solvent-based approaches. It examines how processing conditions such as treatment time, temperature, pH, dye chemistry and bleaching parameters affect decolourisation efficiency and fibre preservation.

The authors note that although conventional chemical treatments can deliver effective dye removal, future innovation must focus on solutions that preserve material quality while minimising environmental impacts. Emerging biological and advanced treatment methods offer promising opportunities to improve both sustainability and process performance. These findings closely align with the mission of BioSusTex to accelerate the transition toward safer and more circular textile systems. Within the project, sustainable pre-processing technologies are being developed to remove dyes, elastane and other impurities from post-consumer textiles while avoiding harmful by-products and enabling fibre-to-fibre recycling.

Removing colour is more than a technical processing step it is a critical enabler for increasing recycling rates, retaining material value and supporting the next generation of circular textile technologies. By linking scientific advances with scalable industrial solutions, research such as this contributes to the broader transition toward a Safe and Sustainable-by-Design textile value chain.

The work was carried out by Md. Reazuddin Repon and Ali R. Tehrani-Bagha at the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems, School of Chemical Engineering, Aalto University, Finland. The study contributes to ongoing European efforts to advance sustainable textile innovation, including initiatives such as BioSusTex focused on enabling circular and sustainable textile technologies.

Read the publication:

Color stripping of dyed textile waste, Green Chemistry (2026), DOI: 10.1039/D5GC06662J