Life Cycle Assessment of Upcycling Post-Consumer Textiles for 3D Printing : Evaluating the Environmental Impact of 3D Printing Filament Production from Polycotton Waste via TEMPO-Mediated Oxidation

Sammanfattning

This study investigates the environmental performance of upcycling post-consumer cotton-polyester textile blends into 3D-printable nanocomposite filaments via TEMPO-mediated oxidation and melt extrusion. Addressing the global need for sustainable textile waste management and advanced recycling pathways, the research scales a laboratory process to industrial scale, using industrial assumptions and evaluates it through a grave-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA). Environmental impacts were assessed using the Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and ReCiPe 2016 methods to identify key hotspots and improvement strategies. The results identify the dispersion step of the recycling process as the primary environmental hotspot, accounting for slightly less than half of the total climate impact and energy demand. Scenario analyses demonstrate that switching to renewable electricity can reduce climate change impacts by over 60%, and that optimising the PETG content in the final filament is critical for balancing resource and ecosystem outcomes. This research contributes to the growing field of circular textiles by offering LCAs of a fibre-to-filament process at scale. It provides clear recommendations for cleaner process design and informs future development of sustainable, industrial-scale textile recycling technologies.