The PUreTex project is looking at new ways to chemically recycle post-consumer textile waste into useful building blocks, including those used to make polyurethane-based insulation foams. We are a multidisciplinary team based in both Dublin City University and the Rediscovery Centre, and are currently funded through Science Foundation Ireland/ Research Ireland. Using state of the art chemical recycling methods, we are developing sustainable methods to produce small molecules with high yield and purity, and demonstrating the capacity of using these molecules in the synthesis of different polymer materials. Additionally, we are working to understand how the behaviour of consumers can affect the end-of-life pathway for textiles, and what the best interventions to be adopted should be to reduce the amount of these waste materials both being produced and disposed of in a non-sustainable way. If you are interested in learning more about our processes, products, or learnings, please get in touch.