At present, with the rapid increase in clothing renewal speed, waste clothing is gradually increasing, and how to deal with these waste clothing has now become a problem for many people. The reporter learned that Lanzhou, Gansu, is currently recycling waste clothing by putting in recycling bins and setting up charitable donation points to promote the recycling of resources. However, in the actual process, the local area has not established effective waste clothing recycling, treatment, and System and operating mode for processing and reuse. Industry insiders suggest that the comprehensive utilization of used clothing and other resources has great potential, and relevant departments should establish and improve recycling systems, processing systems, and related policies, regulations, and standard evaluation systems to form a renewable resource industry while realizing the concept of environmental protection.

Broad prospects for the recycling of waste clothes

For the places where old clothes go, people hope to donate clothes that they can wear to help people in real difficulties. However, donating clothes is very difficult. On the one hand, it is difficult for ordinary people to know the specific information of the number and type of clothes required by the recipients. On the other hand, it is also difficult for them to uniformly disinfect the clothes. This causes old clothes to be thrown away as garbage, resulting in Serious waste of resources.

Lin Jianping, a member of the Standing Committee of the Lanzhou Municipal Political Consultative Conference, has long been concerned about the waste clothing recycling market. One of his proposals pointed out that at present, the resident and floating population in the four suburbs of Lanzhou is more than 3 million, and the waste clothing to be eliminated every year should be more than 30,000 tons. According to the material, there are cotton, chemical fiber, blended, wool, leather, rubber, etc. According to the purpose, there are clothes, footwear, bedding, sofa bedding, carpets, etc.

Lin Jianping said that if old clothes are not recycled well but are simply thrown away, water, soil, and air will be polluted. "If all these waste clothes are incinerated, the substances produced will contain carcinogens. If they are buried in the garbage, the cotton is perishable and the chemical fiber is difficult to degrade, which will pollute the soil and groundwater."

The reporter learned that most cities are troubled by the "where to go" of waste clothes. According to a data from the Association for Comprehensive Utilization of Resources, about 26 million tons of old clothes are thrown into the trash cans every year, and the reuse rate is less than 1%. Most of the old clothes are not reprocessed or treated in a harmless manner.

"But in fact, these waste clothes can be recycled, processed, and processed to become renewable resources for secondary use and turn waste into treasure. At present, many areas have used the recycling of waste clothes as an important industry category of the circular economy. The potential is huge." Lin Jianping told reporters.

According to the calculations of the Textile Industry Federation, if all waste textiles are recycled, the chemical fiber and natural fiber that can be provided each year is equivalent to saving 24 million tons of crude oil, and it can also reduce 80 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions and save nearly one-third of the total. Cotton planting area. At the same time, it can also be applied to many industries such as building materials, water conservancy roads, medical and health, automobile interior decoration, and furniture manufacturing.

Corporate government actively assists the recycling of waste clothing

In 2015, a company from Lanzhou City joined forces with the Lanzhou Charity Federation and the Minge Lanzhou Municipal Committee to put waste clothing recycling bins in the local community to solve the problem of “no way to donate” and waste of resources.

The company called "Hauzer Trading Co., Ltd." put a total of 100 recycling bins in 30 local communities. "The masses are very motivated. Every three or five days, the boxes will be filled." Xie Shuaipo, the person in charge of the company, told reporters that after sorting the clothes, the company will disinfect and treat more than 80% of the new clothes and donate them to those in need in poverty-stricken areas. people. The clothes that are less than 80% new, poor in color, and damaged, will be made into agricultural thermal insulation cotton that covers vegetable greenhouses after treatment.

Xie Shuaipo told reporters that the company plans to put in a total of 5,000 recycling bins to cover every community in the city, so that people’s love can go somewhere, and resources can be reused.

In addition to the positive actions of enterprises, starting from this year, Lanzhou will make full use of public finances to purchase charitable organization services, and strive to establish charity branches in 80% of the towns and sub-districts in the city by 2020, and charity supermarkets in 50% of the towns and sub-districts, and counties and districts. Set up 20-50 charitable donation receiving sites.

Shi Ping, a lecturer at the School of Journalism and Communication of Lanzhou University, believes that recycling waste clothing in different ways provides the most direct and convenient way for people to give play to the concept of environmental protection and charity, which can inspire more and more people to develop and help others. The good ethos of the company can help to protect the environment and form an atmosphere of resource recycling.

The reporter learned that at present, the old clothes recycling model is mainly divided into three categories: one is the way charity organizations collect, the other is the sanitation system through garbage sorting, and the third is that recycling companies rely on government circular economy projects to carry out old clothes recycling. Many cities, including Lanzhou, are actively exploring ways to recycle used clothes. Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Wenzhou and other cities have successively opened charity supermarkets. The community accepts donations of old clothes from citizens, and the donations are distributed free of charge after being processed. Give it to the needy group, or realize the donation, and then use the money to help the needy group.

At present, some companies use technology to process the recycled and purchased old clothes by manual sorting and use them as new materials, or produce sound insulation and heat insulation materials for automobiles and home appliances, or use them as stuffing for plush toys and raw materials for the paper industry. Wait.

The reporter learned that a recycling company in Shanghai used a combination of ring spinning and open-end spinning to spin the purchased old wool textiles by manual sorting. The company recycles 700 tons of waste raw materials every year and produces 640 tons of yarn annually, with a utilization rate of over 90%.

The recycling market urgently needs policy escort

Interviewees Lin Jianping said that many areas have realized the comprehensive recycling of waste clothing, using waste clothing to make recycled fiber cloth, car seat cushions and other environmentally friendly products. The effect is remarkable and it is worth learning.

According to reports, Japan promotes old clothing recycling activities, 87% of which are refurbished and donated to refugees through the UN refugee agency, 3% of old clothing is used for power generation, and 10% is processed into thermal insulation materials. As early as 1978, Switzerland established a company that specializes in recycling and reusing old clothes. In the United States, 80% of old clothes will be donated for renovation, and the other 20% are mainly used for recycling.

Although the Renewable Energy Law was implemented as early as 2006, there are no corresponding supporting provisions for the recycling of used clothes. Therefore, although waste clothing recycling has great potential, in the actual recycling process, many cities including Lanzhou have not yet established effective systems and operating modes for waste clothing recycling, treatment, processing and reuse.

Lin Jianping, Xie Shuaipo, etc. suggested that relevant government departments should incorporate waste textiles into local policies and the development of circular economy, study reasonable and sustainable recycling models and benefit distribution mechanisms, and introduce various policies to encourage development, especially to encourage enterprises and individuals to invest The waste clothing recycling and processing industry has established a waste clothing recycling, processing, processing and recycling system to guide the recycling and reuse of waste clothing to a large-scale and standardized development.

The Lanzhou Municipal Committee of the Republic of China conducted an investigation on the waste clothing recycling and processing industry in Lanzhou. This research suggests that, in accordance with the relevant policies and regulations for the recycling industry and recycling companies, preferential policies such as tax deductions or tax refunds should be given to waste clothing recycling and processing companies. At the same time, the neighborhood communities, housing management departments, and property management units should be coordinated to allow the recycling bins and recycling vehicles of waste clothing recycling and processing companies to enter and exit residential communities for free to support the development of waste clothing recycling and processing companies.

"Through screening, classification, cleaning, disinfection, separation, and processing of waste clothes, different types of renewable resources are formed, and processed into different types of industrial products, turning waste into treasure, such as recycled fiber cloth, engineering thermal insulation cotton, and agricultural thermal insulation cotton. Quilts, car seat cushions, etc., enter the market to form a renewable resource industry, increase output value and tax, and also solve some people’s employment." Lin Jianping said, at the same time, relevant departments should formulate old and new standards for donation of old clothes, sanitary standards and processing procedures to ensure The clothes donated for public welfare assistance meet the requirements of integrity, hygiene and safety and the acceptance level of the donor.