Spinning millions of tons of ‘wasted’ textiles to new life

Hang Liu, assistant professor in Apparel, Merchandising, Design and Textiles, right, demonstrates use of a wet spinning machine in her lab, turning cotton waste into new fibers. She is assisted by student researchers Wangcheng Liu, left, and Badrul Haque. (Photo by Seth Truscott, WSU)
Hang Liu, assistant professor in Apparel, Merchandising, Design and Textiles, right, demonstrates use of a wet spinning machine in her lab, turning cotton waste into new fibers. She is assisted by student researchers Wangcheng Liu, left, and Badrul Haque. (Photo by Seth Truscott, WSU)

“More than 13 million tons of textiles go to waste every year in the United States,” said Hang Liu, assistant professor in WSU’s Department of Apparel, Merchandising, Design, and Textiles. “In Washington’s King County alone, 40,000 tons of textile waste ended up in landfills in 2015.

“The textile industry is eager to put that waste back into use,” she added. Manufacturers are actively seeking sustainable practices that keep materials in use as long as possible, and find new value for them once they’ve been used.

Partnering with Ting Chi, associate professor in AMDT, and Jinwen Zhang, professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Liu this fall enhanced her research project through a new grant, “Environmentally Friendly Cotton/Cellulose Waste Recycling,” with $120,000 in funding, $60,000 from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and $60,000 from the Washington State University Office of Commercialization. Read More…