IELTS Reading Flow-chart Completion

Cotton clothing is often discarded long before the fibres have completely lost their value. Textile recycling centres try to recover that value by turning suitable garments into new raw material. The process is selective because not every item can be reused in the same way. Clothing with heavy coatings, oil stains or mixed synthetic fibres may be rejected or sent to a different facility. The first stage is sorting. Workers separate garments by fibre type and colour, since keeping similar colours together can reduce the need for later dyeing. Items that pass this inspection are then cleaned to remove dust, buttons and other hard parts. Zippers and metal decorations must be taken out because they can damage the shredding equipment. After cleaning, the fabric is cut into smaller pieces and passed through machines with rotating teeth. These machines pull the cloth apart until it becomes loose fibre. The fibres are shorter than those from new cotton, so they are usually blended with a stronger material before being spun into yarn. Without this blending stage, the yarn may break too easily during weaving. The recycled yarn can be used for products that do not require very fine thread, such as blankets, insulation pads and some casual fabrics. Although the process saves material, it is not entirely waste-free. Very short fibres and dust are collected separately and may be used for filling, paper products or industrial cleaning cloths.