The global environmental landscape has been significantly impacted by the accumulation and improper management of post-consumer polymers. With a significant rise in the use of polymeric textile fibres, and the massive amount of textile waste generated every year, there is an immediate need to find sustainable processes for handling this waste. Chemical recycling is an auspicious approach that involves the conversion of waste polymers into useful monomers, fuels, or chemicals. However, the chemical recycling of primary polymer components typically results in the degradation or loss of secondary polymer components
due to their multi-component characteristics and comparable chemical activities. Every year,
elastane, one such polymeric textile fibre, renders roughly 2Mt of textile waste unrecyclable
globally. Even though the average content of elastane in any blended fabric is low ( ̴10%), it
has a significant impact on the recycling of polyester fibres. Hence, there is a need for a
sustainable and economically feasible technology to deal with this massive textile waste other
than incineration. In this master’s thesis, the chemical recycling of elastane and its blend with
polyester was studied. The aim was to understand the depolymerization of elastane using two
methods, methanolysis and glycolysis, to obtain Poly(tetramethylene ether)glycol (PTMG) and
grasp how basic parameters such as temperature, catalyst, etc. affect the processes and the
recycled products. The polyester/elastane blends were also depolymerized to obtain Bis(2-
hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET), with the hope of understanding the effect of increasing
elastane content on recycled products. Vital data was obtained, and the recycled products
were analysed using characterization methods like Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy
(FTIR), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC).
