The rapid growth of the world's population coupled with the rapid changes in fashion trends are resulting in more and more textile waste. With a huge amount of textile waste produced annually, great pressure was imposed on landfill and the fiber supply chain. HKRITA is conducting on-going projects ITP-103-15TP and ITP-025-17TP for chemically recycling textile materials (e.g. PET and cotton) from their blends. While the PET fibers recovered are spinnable and can go for spinning directly, we are intending to turn the cellulose powder recovered into a product, i.e. superabsorbent polymer (SAP). The product may be used as a water retaining aid (soil water retention) for cotton plantation. The cellulosic SAPs have an advantage of being more eco-friendly than the petrochemical based SAPs on the market.