Can a T-shirt really be recycled?

It is a complicated issue. So, yes, in theory, it is possible to recycle clothes. But in practice, it's a great deal harder.
Among the main challenges linked to recycling clothes are:
- the variety of fabrics used. Clothes are very often made from several different materials (natural fibres, such as cotton, wool, and linen… and as synthetic fibres, such as polyester, nylon, elastane, etc.), making sorting and recycling complicated.
Clothes' composition can vary considerably. A basic t-shirt can be made up of cotton, polyester and elastane. And when tackling something like jackets, these include metal zips, for example.
This composition poses a problem: it makes it harder to sort clothes (they need to be sorted by material to be recycled properly), and some materials used are not recyclable. And if that were not hard enough, recycling certain fabrics (such as polyester) can be a source of pollution… and emit greenhouse gases.

- the presence of toxic substances. Some clothes can contain toxic substances for the environment, such as dyes and chemical products (waterproof, stain proof,… chemical agents).

Several types of technologies exist to manage textile recycling. These include:
Depolymerisation: this technique lets you separate textile fibres into their chemical components, that can be used afterwards to manufacture new textiles.
Mechanical recycling: this technique consists of shredding textiles into short fibres to be afterwards spun to create new yarns.
Chemical recycling: this technique uses chemical products to break down textiles into their molecular components that can then be used to manufacture new textiles.

The recycling of post-consumer cotton is the process of transforming clothes and other used cotton items into new products. This type of recycling helps to reduce the amount of textile waste sent to landfills and incinerators and preserves natural resources by limiting virgin cotton growing.

The post-consumer cotton recycling process takes place in several steps:
Collecting: The used cotton clothing and items are collected from consumers, companies and charity organisations.
Sorting: The textiles collected are sorted by material, colour and quality.
Defibration: The textiles are sorted and then shredded into separate fibres.
Cleaning: The fibres are cleaned to eliminate dirt, dyes and chemical products.
Carding: The fibres are carded, in other words, fibres aligned to make them parallel with each other to create a yarn.
Spinning: The carded yarn is then spun to create a new recycled cotton yarn.
Manufacturing: Recycled cotton yarn can be used to manufacture new clothes, accessories, household items and other clothing products.

It is the reason why it is essential to prioritise waste treatment methods (as advocated, in particular, by the French Environmental Code of Practice). Reuse, which gives products a new lease of life without transforming them, is subsequently preferable where possible. Recycling then comes into play for materials that cannot be reused as is, enabling their transformation into new products.

Well, yes… and no. As we saw, in theory, you should be able to recycle a 100% cotton T-shirt. In practice, it still has to be collected and then sent to the right recycling network. So, ideally, make it last as long as possible and et de repair it if necessary. Recycling should be when a T-shirt reaches the very end of a long and distinguished lifespan. And when its time comes, make sure to leave it in a container corresponding to the right recycling process, to actually give it a chance of becoming somebody else's favourite new t-shirt…