Driven by the rapid development of the textile industry and consumption upgrading, the volume of textile waste—such as old clothes, leftover pieces from home textiles, and industrial textile scraps—is growing at an alarming rate. If casually discarded, these wastes not only occupy large amounts of land resources and cause environmental pollution but also lead to a severe waste of high-quality fiber resources. Against this backdrop, textile recycling and reuse have become key initiatives to promote a circular economy in the textile industry and achieve the “dual carbon” goals. Among this process, efficient shredding and impurity purification are the core first steps to kickstart this resource regeneration journey.

Textile waste has a complex composition, often containing various fibers like cotton, chemical fibers, and wool, with some even mixed with impurities such as metal buttons and zippers. This poses significant challenges to textile waste recycling. To convert it into qualified recycled raw materials, a systematic mechanical processing flow is essential, mainly covering four key stages: uniform feeding, initial shredding, impurity removal, and fine shredding.

The collected textile waste is first transported to a feeding belt conveyor, which acts as the initial stage and continuous feeding mechanism for the entire recycling process. By steadily supplying disorganized textiles to downstream equipment, the conveyor ensures a uniform and consistent flow of material. This controlled feeding prevents overloading or uneven processing in the shredder, thereby minimizing the risk of jams and ensuring stable operation throughout the production line from the very beginning.

After being conveyed by the belt, the textile waste is directly fed into a shear-type shredder. Driven by a motor, the shredder’s two sets of knife shafts run at high speed. Using the “shearing force” and “tearing force” between the knife shafts, it shreds large, bundled textile waste into small-sized pieces. This step not only significantly reduces the volume of materials but also initially loosens the intertwined fibers, laying the groundwork for subsequent fine shredding.

Between the shredder and the subsequent fine crusher, an iron remover is suspended above the conveyor belt—a crucial checkpoint to ensure material purity. Since some textile waste (such as old jackets and work clothes) may contain magnetic impurities like metal buttons, zippers, and rivets, the iron remover uses a magnetic field to absorb these impurities. This prevents damage to the fine crusher caused by impurities and ensures the purity of the final shredded materials, avoiding any negative impact on the quality of recycled fibers later.

Once iron removal is completed, the initially shredded materials are sent to the fine crusher for secondary processing. Equipped with finer blades or grinding structures, the fine crusher further shreds and loosens the materials, ultimately producing “qualified materials” with uniform size (ranging from a few millimeters to a few centimeters, adjusted based on subsequent reuse needs) and high fiber dispersion. At this point, the textile waste has completed the “pretreatment stage” and is transformed into basic raw materials that can be directly used for recycling and processing.

The textile waste materials that have undergone shredding and purification are not uniform. Instead, they embark on diverse “regeneration” paths based on differences in fiber composition, realizing the secondary value of resources.

The significance of textile waste recycling and reuse goes far beyond environmental protection alone; it achieves a win-win situation for both the environment and the economy. From an environmental perspective, statistics show that recycling and reusing 1 ton of textile waste can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 6 tons and save 1.2 tons of standard coal. This effectively alleviates the problem of “waste pollution” and contributes to addressing climate change and protecting the ecological environment. From an economic perspective, this process can greatly reduce the textile industry’s dependence on primary fibers such as cotton and petroleum-based chemical fibers, easing the pressure of resource extraction. At the same time, it opens up a low-cost, sustainable new source of raw materials for the textile industry, reducing production costs for enterprises and enhancing the industry’s competitiveness.

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