Search Results (7)

The growing environmental impact of textile waste, fueled by the rapid rise in global fiber production, underscores the urgent need for sustainable end-of-life solutions. This review explores cutting-edge pathways for textile waste management, spotlighting innovations that reduce reliance on incineration and landfilling while driving material circularity. It highlights advancements in collection, sorting, and pretreatment technologies, as well as both established and emerging recycling methods. Smart collection systems utilizing tags and sensors show great promise in streamlining logistics by automating pick-up routes and transactions. For sorting, automated technologies like near-infrared and hyperspectral imaging lead the way in accurate and scalable fiber separation. Automated disassembly techniques are effective at removing problematic elements, though other pretreatments, such as color and finish removal, still need to be customized for specific waste streams. Mechanical fiber recycling is ideal for textiles with strong mechanical properties but has limitations, particularly with blended fabrics, and cannot be repeated endlessly. Polymer recycling—through melting or dissolving waste polymers—produces higher-quality recycled materials but comes with high energy and solvent demands. Chemical recycling, especially solvolysis and pyrolysis, excels at breaking down synthetic polymers like polyester, with the potential to yield virgin-quality monomers. Meanwhile, biological methods, though still in their infancy, show promise for recycling natural fibers like cotton and wool. When other methods are not viable, gasification can be used to convert waste into synthesis gas. The review concludes that the future of sustainable textile recycling hinges on integrating automated sorting systems and advancing solvent-based and chemical recycling technologies. These innovations, supported by eco-design principles, progressive policies, and industry collaboration, are essential to building a resilient, circular textile economy. Full article

Pollution of the marine environment by microfibers is considered a problem for ecosystem conservation. The amount of microplastic, localization of sources, and associated ecotoxicity are well known in the literature. Wastewater from washing machines is the main source of microplastic fibers in the aquatic environment, and fabrics made from recycled plastic are widely reused. The circular economy also promotes recycling of dyed natural wool materials as a basis for making new clothing, but in this case, less research has been conducted on the behaviour and effects of recycled wool microfibers in marine ecosystems. MWool^® (MW) and MWool^® carded (MWc) products made from recycled wool fibers were tested in mesocosms to investigate the biodegradation of wool fibers over a 260-day period and the effects of this process on marine ecosystems in terms of microfiber inputs and the ecotoxicological effects of by-products and chemicals released during degradation. The early degradation process was associated with the loss of artificial pigments from the dyed wool, particularly pink and red, which occurred within 30–90 days of exposure. Mean release of microparticles into contact water is significantly different from control (T0, p < 0.01) at 90 days MWc (36.6 mg/L) and 180 days MW (42.9 mg/L). The biodegradation process is accompanied by swelling of wool fibers, which is associated with a significant increase in mean wool thickness (p < 0.05, 18.8 ± 2.1 µm at T0 vs. 24.0 ± 7.1 µm). In both cases, the contact water was not associated with signs of ecotoxicity for the marine species tested in this study (Phaeodactylum tricornutum, Brachionus plicatilis, and Paracentrotus lividus). Full article

The problem of the use and disposal of horticultural substrates is an important element of the optimization of plastic greenhouse production in terms of economic and environmental efficiency. The production of mineral substrates is associated with a high energy expenditure, which generates costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. An important factor is also the transport of professional substrates over long distances. The research objective was to evaluate the possibility of using sheep wool to create horticultural substrates in the hydroponic production of cucumber. The modifier of production technology was the use of substrates of various origins. The experiment was based on the use of two substrates: one was a conventional substrate, made of mineral wool, and the other was made of greasy Gissar sheep wool, which is considered waste or a nuisance byproduct of sheep farming today. The adopted functional unit was 1 ton of commercial cucumber yield. The boundaries of the system were soil formation, fertilization, irrigation, and harvesting. The amount of GHG emissions was calculated in accordance with the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. The results of the experiment show that the use of sheep wool as a substrate in the hydroponic cultivation of cucumbers reduced yield by approximately 8%, but it allowed for a higher efficiency of water and mineral fertilizer use per crop mass unit. Within the adopted system boundary, the value of the carbon footprint in the object with the conventional substrate was 276.9 kg CO₂ eq · Mg⁻¹. The value of this parameter for the object with the sheep wool was 193.9 kg CO₂ eq · Mg⁻¹. The use of sheep wool did not increase the phytosanitary risk of the cultivated plants. An important goal for achieving sustainability, especially in food production, is to use materials that are easily recyclable and renewable, locally available, and environmentally friendly. The use of sheep wool as a substrate for soilless plastic greenhouse cultivation is a rational solution, as this material consists of 60% animal protein fibers, 10% fat, 15% moisture, 10% sheep sweat, and an average of 5% impurities. This makes it an easily recyclable, easily renewable, and environmentally friendly source of raw material for hydroponic substrates in food production, contrary to rockwool, which produces waste that is difficult to manage and a nuisance to the natural environment. In the countries of Central Asia, the sheep population is over 20 million; therefore, the potential for using sheep wool material for agricultural production is significant. Full article

Cements to replace ordinary portland cement (OPC) are currently being studied due to the high environmental costs of OPC production. One viable alternative is alkali-activated cements, which can be made from pozzolanic materials such as stone wool fiber waste (SW). At present, SW is the most used insulation material in the world, and the disposal and recycling of it is an environmental challenge due to its fibrous nature and low density. In the present work, an alkali-activated cement (AAC) and an alkali-activated hybrid cement (AAHC) were obtained from the alkaline activation of SW. The unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of the AAC and AAHC obtained was evaluated. After 28 days of curing at room temperature, the maximum UCS reached was 6.7 MPa for samples without the addition of OPC and 12.3 MPa for those with the addition of OPC. In addition, alkaline reaction products were identified in all the combinations through XRD and SEM-EDS. The results are promising as they show a hybrid material obtained from an industrial waste product and has a reduced carbon footprint. Full article

Globally, as human population and industries grow, so does the creation of agricultural, industrial, and demolition waste. When these wastes are not properly recycled, reused, or disposed of, they pose a threat to the environment. The importance of this study lies in the beneficial use of coconut fibre and mineral wool in the form of fibres in cement mortar production. This study examines the use of coconut and mineral wool fibres in the production of fibre-reinforced mortar. Five different mortar mixtures were prepared, having one control mortar along with four fibre-reinforced mortars. The control mortar is denoted as CM while 1% and 1.5% of mineral wool are incorporated into this mortar mix and denoted as RMM-1.0 and RMM-1.5, respectively. Additionally, the mortar sample configurations contain 1% and 1.5% coconut fibers, designated as RCM-1.0 and RCM-1.5. These samples were subjected to different strength and durability tests to determine their suitability for use in mortar production. The testing findings show that mortar containing 1.5% mineral wool has better compared flexural strength and durability properties. The investigation results will form part of the database for the efficient utilization of natural and waste fibres in the construction and building sectors. Full article

In recent years, natural materials are becoming a valid alternative to traditional sound absorbers due to reduced production costs and environmental protection. This study explores alternative usage of sheep wool as a construction material with improved sound absorbing properties beyond its traditional application as a sound absorber in textile industry or using of waste wool in the textile industry as a raw material. The aim of this study was to obtain materials with improved sound-absorbing properties using sheep wool as a raw material. Seven materials were obtained by hot pressing (60 ÷ 80 °C and 0.05 ÷ 6 MPa) of wool fibers and one by cold pressing. Results showed that by simply hot pressing the wool, a different product was obtained, which could be processed and easily manipulated. The obtained materials had very good sound absorption properties, with acoustic absorption coefficient values of over 0.7 for the frequency range of 800 ÷ 3150 Hz. The results prove that sheep wool has a comparable sound absorption performance to mineral wool or recycled polyurethane foam. Full article

Greasy sheep wool is currently considered a special waste for its high bacterial load, with expensive disposal costs for sheep breeders. For this reason, wool is often burned or buried, with serious consequences for the environment. On the other hand, sheep wool is well regarded as one of the most performative insulating natural fibers due to its thermo-hygrometric and acoustic properties. In the building sector, sheep wool meets the requirements of green building components because it is an eco-friendly material, there is a surplus of it, it is annually renewable, and totally recyclable. If used instead of common insulation materials (e.g., fiberglass, rock wool, polyurethane foam, polystyrene), sheep wool offers significant benefits for sustainability such as a reduction in the production costs for new insulating materials and in environmental pollution. Mechanical and physical properties of sheep wool investigated in previous studies were assessed and discussed with the aim of providing an organized framework of possible applications of wool fibers in building components. This paper highlights in detail aspects that have not yet been investigated enough to detect new potential uses of sheep wool fibers in rural buildings and the reuse of traditional ones. Full article