Reuse and recycling are terms that are often used interchangeably as if they mean the same thing. However, this is not the case, and the difference between them is relevant to know in the context of the SorTex project's focus on sorting and recycling textile waste.
This article explains the difference between reuse and recycling and reviews the terms upcycling, recycling and downcycling.
When municipalities and waste companies sort textiles, it is done according to the waste hierarchy, where the goal is that the discarded textiles are used as resources as much as possible rather than being landfilled as waste.
The waste hierarchy has five different steps by which waste is sorted, with the aim of placing the waste on the highest possible step in the hierarchy.
In other words, you want to prevent products from being discarded as waste in the first place (step 1) and avoid waste going to landfill (step 5) where it does no good. But what is the difference between step 2 (reuse) and step 3 (recycling)? We'll take a closer look in the following sections.
Direct reuse (step 2 in the waste hierarchy) is the process of using the same item for the same purpose multiple times. In the case of textiles, it's about the textiles that are good enough to be handed over to the second-hand shops and get a new owner when you're done using them. It can also be textiles that require a minor repair first, but can then be used by others.
Recycling is on step 3 of the waste hierarchy - between direct reuse and energy recovery. Recycling refers to the process where the object takes on a new form and is transformed into new products. In the textile world, recycling is relevant when textiles that cannot be reused are used to create new products or materials that can then be resold. This could be as new clothes, tea towels, blankets and rags, or other materials such as insulation and acoustic panels.
However, reuse (step 2) is preferable to recycling, as with reuse you don't have to use resources to transform the textile into something else.
If textile residues are not suitable for reuse or recycling, they can in many cases be used for energy recovery (step 4 in the waste hierarchy.) Here the textile waste is used in the production of green electricity and district heating. This is not as good as reuse or recycling, but it is clearly better than landfill (step 5 in the waste hierarchy), where the waste has no use and is only a climate burden.
In addition to the terms reuse and recycling, you often hear about upcycling, recycling and downcycling. These are all terms for ways of using discarded materials such as textiles.
Upcycling is the process of treating and reworking a product to give it a higher value than it had before. Upcycling can be when leftover clothes are used to create new clothes.
Recycling means that the product is reused in a way that retains both its original value and shape.
Downcycling is the opposite of upcycling. This means that the product is processed and transformed into a new product that has less value than the original product. This can be when leftover clothes are used to produce dishcloths, blankets or tea towels. It may sound like a lesser solution than upcycling, but since not all textile waste is suitable for upcycling, we still need downcycling as it is better than throwing the textile away.
