New research publication highlights progress in circular textile recycling
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
BioSusTex is proud to celebrate an important new milestone: the publication of a research paper arising from our work, officially made available on 10 March 2026. This publication marks a significant achievement for the project and highlights the value of close collaboration in addressing some of the most pressing sustainability challenges in textiles.
The paper, “A comparative study of textile recycling techniques for dope-dyed cellulosic fibres: Viscose vs. lyocell-based processes”, published in the journal Waste Management, brings together researchers from Aalto University in Finland and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. This collaboration has been central to the work, combining complementary expertise in cellulose-based materials, fibre regeneration and applied sustainability research. It also reflects the spirit of BioSusTex: building knowledge across institutions and disciplines to support the development of safer and more sustainable textile systems.
The study explores an important question for the future of circular textiles: whether dope-dyed cellulosic fibres can be directly recycled into new fibres while preserving colour and maintaining useful material properties. This matters because conventional textile dyeing is resource-intensive, often requiring large amounts of water, chemicals and energy. If colour can be retained during recycling, it may open up new possibilities for reducing the environmental burden associated with textile production.
The findings provide encouraging evidence and help clarify which pathways may be especially worth exploring further. The team investigated whether dope-dyed cellulosic fibres (fibres coloured during production rather than through conventional wet dyeing afterward) can be recycled into new fibres through three different regeneration routes: the viscose process, NMMO-Lyocell and Ioncell. All three routes retained the original colour of the fibres very well, meaning the material could potentially be recycled without needing to be dyed again. This is important because avoiding re-dyeing could significantly reduce the water consumption, chemical inputs and pollution typically associated with textile coloration.
At the same time, the study showed that not all recycling routes perform equally. The Lyocell-based NMMO process and the Ioncell process outperformed the viscose route in preserving fibre quality. These methods produced recycled fibres with superior mechanical strength, better preservation of molecular structure and stronger thermal stability. In practical terms, this means the recycled fibres showed promising performance, with strength levels around 30 cN/tex, nearly double of the original virgin dope-dyed fibres studied. By contrast, the viscose route led to greater degradation and lower strength.
This is particularly relevant because one of the key challenges in textile-to-textile recycling is ensuring that recycled fibres retain sufficient quality for demanding applications. The results therefore suggest that high-quality fibre-to-fibre recycling may be possible even for coloured materials, which have traditionally been more difficult to integrate into circular systems.
This is especially relevant for BioSusTex, whose goal is to support the transition to safe and sustainable biobased textiles. The paper contributes new knowledge that aligns closely with the project’s aims: improving circularity, reducing the environmental impacts of textile processing, and developing materials and systems that can perform in practice. By showing that direct recycling of dope-dyed cellulosic fibres may be feasible, the study opens a constructive direction for continued innovation within the project and beyond.
Looking ahead, the work also raises important new questions. One next step is to investigate additional dyes that may be suitable for dope-dyeing and direct recycling. Another is to study the particularly promising Lyocell and Ioncell technologies in greater depth. To move these approaches forward, researchers will need to better understand issues such as the effect of recycled dyes on solvent recyclability and the overall circularity of the process. Addressing these questions will be essential in assessing how sustainable and scalable these solutions can become.
This is also why the collaboration between Aalto and RISE is so important. Together, the partners are not only reporting promising results, but also building the scientific foundation needed for future advances. Their joint work strengthens the project by combining ambition with careful, evidence-based development.
For the textile field, the publication offers useful insight into how coloured regenerated fibres might be recycled more effectively in the future. For researchers and industry, it highlights both technical opportunities and areas that warrant further study. For the general public, it provides a hopeful example of how science and collaboration can help move the textile sector toward more sustainable practices: not through quick fixes, but through steady progress grounded in research.
We warmly congratulate the authors and everyone involved in this achievement. The publication of this paper is a milestone worth celebrating, and an encouraging reminder of what strong collaboration can achieve.
You can access the article here: