Material Properties of Discarded Textiles for Manufacturing Feedstocks

Presently, many textiles are discarded, in a condition that would allow a significant percentage of them to be able to be completely reused or recycled. Recent consumption practices embodied by “fast fashion”, fast purchasing, and fast disposal of out of style clothing has increased the volume of discarded clothing, as the repurposing and/or recycling of discarded textile materials has not increased at a proportional rate. Consequently, discarded clothing may have nearly no wear and tear or extensive use before consumers choose to dispose of these textiles. Increasing the recovery of textiles from municipal solid waste streams involves understanding the material properties that discarded textiles possess. Measuring the material properties available from discarded textiles will allow for understanding whether these textiles can be reused. At the same time as disposal of textiles has increased, geotextile purchase and use has been increasing rapidly. In the current study, tensile strength (break force) and permittivity of discarded clothing samples made of cotton, polyester, and cotton-polyester blends were measured and compared with material properties that are commonly specified for geotextile applications. Average break force values measured for discarded cotton and polyester and average permittivity values measured for 50%/50% cotton-polyester blends and polyester are higher than what is commonly recommended for common geotextile applications. Polyester materials showed promise for drainage and erosion control applications that would be commonly serviced by geotextiles, as polyester samples yielded average break force and permittivity values are above typically recommended geotextile minimum values for these applications.