In just over four decades, China has produced more than a gigatonne of textile fibres – equivalent to 1 billion tonnes or roughly twice the total human mass on the planet, according to a first-of-its-kind study by Tsinghua University.
The research, published late last month in the peer-reviewed journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling, mapped textile fibre flows and stocks in China from 1978 to 2022 – a period of rapid economic and societal development in China.
According to the research, the waste recovery rate in China is only 17 per cent, with most of this being downcycled – recycled into products of lower quality or value than the original material. The global waste recovery rate is around 12 per cent, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
Given the textile industry’s complexity and size, tracking its global flows and environmental footprint has been a challenge for both academics and policymakers, particularly in China – a key player accounting for more than half of global processing capacity.
