How your old sheets could have a new life preventing landslides

The old linen sitting at the top of the cupboard or packed in a box in your wardrobe could be ready for a new use as City of Newcastle kicks off a first-of-its-kind recycling trial that may help prevent erosion and landslips.

Last weekend, the council held its second "Give a Sheet for the Planet" event where people donated old linen for recycling.

More than 540 households took part, with 7530kg (7.53 tonnes) of material collected that otherwise would have ended up in landfill.

The collected textiles were broken down into their cotton and polyester components by textile recovery business Blocktexx, and transformed into other products such as a hydromulch.

Blocktexx co-founder Adrian Jones said mixed textiles can be difficult to recycle.

"The polyester is collected to be re-spun into fibres, but the cotton is reduced down to cellulose and used as an ingredient in the hydromulch," he said.

The recovered cellulose is clean, consistent and suitable for use in a range of ways, including in soil rehabilitation.

Mr Jones said the hydromulch is mixed with grass seed.

"The whole thing hardens like a rock which stops the grass seed from being washed or blown away," he said.

"The seed will then germinate and the cellulose will act as a food store, helping the grass grow, and will eventually be eaten away by microbes once the grass has taken hold."

He said the product had a number of uses across industries.

"It can be used in infrastructure beside roads to prevent erosion and rockfall, on construction areas as a dust suppressor, but more importantly you can use it to grow back grass.

"So you can use it in landfill areas, parks, anywhere you want to encourage growth."

He said it could also help lessen the impact of natural disasters by limiting erosion and landslips.

"The more trees we take out of the environment, the more soil is going to run off in heavy rain," he said.

"This product can help stop that soil from moving down a hill.

"You can spray it on a hillside and stop that risk of movement."

For the trial, around 375 sheets' worth of CellTexx were applied at Summerhill Waste Management Centre.

The trial is the first of its kind in a landfill environment and will be applied to designated areas at Summerhill in need of erosion control.

City of Newcastle waste communications and behaviour change coordinator Karen Toirkens said, instead of going to into the landfill, old textiles were being turned into material that helps protect and restore the land at Summerhill.

"It's a simple example of a "circular economy" - turning waste into a resource and showing what climate action can look like in the real world," she said.

Ms Toirkens said that around 4 per cent of the area's landfill is made up of discarded textiles, with each household putting around 1kg of textile waste in red bins a fortnight.

"That might not sound like much, but it all adds up into tonnes of landfill," she said.

"The good thing is we know our community supports textile recycling, and they want better solutions.

"The trial today will help stabilise the soil at our site, and hopefully it can spread to other landfill sites in the future."