Fabric dye stripping, separation and recovery of polyester

A process for separation, recovery and reuse in production, of polyester polymer from a collection of materials comprising a first polyester component comprising dyed polyester fibers and a second component comprising materials other than polyester fibers, said process comprising:

• (1) stripping the dye from said dyed polyester fibers by contacting the collection with a dye-stripping solvent at a temperature below which the polyester dissolves and above which the crystalline lattice of the polyester fiber swells so as to release the dye;
• (2) removing the excess of the dye-containing dye-stripping solvent which is not absorbed by the collection;
• (3) contacting the residual dye-containing dye-stripping solvent-laden fibers with sufficient addition of a primary dissolution solvent which is not a solvent for the second component to dissolve the polyester component under selective dissolution conditions for the polyester component;
• (4) separating the dissolved polyester component from the undissolved second component;
• and
• (5) separating the residual dye-stripping solvent and the primary dissolution solvent from the polyester component by evaporation of the solvent without precipitating the polyester component from solution.