Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Mar 13;9(4):2400163.
doi: 10.1002/gch2.202400163. eCollection 2025 Apr.

Recycling and Degradation Pathways of Synthetic Textile Fibers such as Polyamide and Elastane

Pilar Chavez-Linares  1 , Sandrine Hoppe  1 , Isabelle Chevalot  1
Affiliations
Review

Recycling and Degradation Pathways of Synthetic Textile Fibers such as Polyamide and Elastane

Pilar Chavez-Linares et al. Glob Chall. .

Abstract

Synthetic textile production is a major contributor to global waste growth, a phenomenon exacerbated by population growth and increased consumption. Global fiber production is expected to reach 147 million tons by 2030. New insights into recycling solutions are being developed. For example, progress has been made in recycling fibers such as polyester, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET), through the use of enzymes that can break specific bonds and return the material to its original state. However, this process must be carried out according to the nature of the polymer in question. In addition, the mixing of different synthetic fibers and the use of dyes make it difficult to develop a complete recycling process that separates the fibers and returns them to their original raw material. This review focuses on two types of fibers widely used in the textile industry, Nylon or polyamide (PA) and elastane (Spandex or Lycra), and explores the challenges and opportunities associated with their recycling.

Keywords: biotechnology; chemical recycling; elastane; polyamide; textile fibers; thermo‐mechanical recycling.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mechanical recycling consists of shredding, melting, and molding. Shredding is referred to as powdering or pulverizing to reuse waste materials.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Solvolysis reactions for amide bonds polymers. The nucleophile reacts with the carbonyl group to give a cleaved product.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mechanism of microbial degradation and biological recycling, microorganisms release extracellular secreted enzymes to degrade the polymer structure in the long term, then the degraded products or oligomers are assimilated into the cells being used as carbon source in the classical pathway to obtain energy. Biological recycling is a cycle in which the degraded products or oligomers are used to make second generation polymers (Design readapted from N. Mohanan et al., 2020[ 87 ] and A. Magnin et al. 2020[ 88 ]).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Major solvolysis process for PU depolymerization.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Climate trade, The world's most polluting industries, can be found under https://climatetrade.com/the‐worlds‐most‐polluting‐industries/ (accessed: May 2023).
    1. Parliament E., The Impact of Textile Production and Waste on the Environment (Infographics), 2020.
    1. Tian W., Huang K., Zhu C., Sun Z., Shao L., Hu M., Feng X., Front. Mater. 2022, 9, 1. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sonak I., Budget 2021–22: How sustainable is push for nylon, can be found under https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/environment/budget‐2021‐22‐how‐susta... (accessed: February 2021).
    1. Exchange T., Materials Market Report, 2023.

LinkOut - more resources