The success of polyolefins in textile and fibre applications is explained by a particularly positive combination of properties that meet many end-user requirements. Polyolefins are naturally hydrophobic and they don’t decompose in a wet environment. Polyolefin fibres have the ability to evacuate moisture by an unusual and unique method of transferring it towards the outside allowing it to evaporate more easily, a property that is taken most advantage of in sportswear, in baby diapers and adult incontinence products. Their chemical resistance is also of great interest and makes them resistant to soiling and to acids and alkali. Finally, the processing technologies are easily accessible and extremely versatile allowing the raw material to be processed with very low energy consumption; Environmentally, polyolefins are remarkably well tolerated and from a health and safety point of view, they are particularly harmless.

The end of life considerations for polyolefin fibres and textiles are very favourable and can offer excellent opportunities as a source of energy. Material recycling could in theory be envisaged technically, but economically it makes no sense, and the environmental benefits would not justify the effort either. The operations needed to isolate clean polyolefin fibres from other fibres and contaminants could only be justified in very limited quantities and for very specific applications. The energy recovery option is therefore much more appropriate and offers excellent possibilities. Polyolefin textile waste has a very high calorific value and is an ideal source for the production of non-hazardous “solid recovered fuels” (SRF). SRFs are becoming more and more popular in industrial processes such as cement kilns, blast furnaces or thermo-electric power plants. In some regions, communal centralised distant heating is able to combust these new fuels under safe environmental conditions to make additional savings in non-recoverable fossil fuels.