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Fiber and Textile Waste Utilization

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DOI: 10.1007/s12649-009-9005-y

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Waste Biomass Valor (2010) 1:135–143
DOI 10.1007/s12649-009-9005-y
Author's personal copy
Fiber and Textile Waste Utilization
Youjiang Wang
Received: 9 November 2009 / Accepted: 22 December 2009 / Published online: 4 February 2010
Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
Abstract Due to the growth in world population and
overall improvement of living standard, global fiber con-
sumption has been steadily increasing in the past few
decades, which leads to a higher amount of post industrial
and post consumer fiber waste. This paper provides an
overview on fiber and textile recycling, focusing on the
case of carpets, which account for a large part of textile
waste. It includes a general description of fibrous waste,
statistics, material characteristics (compositions) and
sources. It also offers a summary on some selected recy-
cling technologies and products from the recycling pro-
cesses. Observations on future trend and needs for further
development are also discussed.
Keywords Fibers
Textiles
Waste
Recycling

Utilization
Introduction
World fiber production has been steadily increasing in the
past few decades, now exceeding 64 million tons per year.
In general, applications of fibers belong to the following
three broad categories: apparel, home furnishing, and
industrial. The service life for fiber products ranges from
short term (e.g., disposables), medium term (e.g., apparel,
carpet, automotive interior), to long term (e.g., textiles for
construction). In the U.S.A. alone, about 11.9 million tons
of textile waste was generated, accounting for 4.7 wt% of
the total municipal solid waste (MSW), and 15.9% of
Y. Wang (&)
School of Polymer, Textile and Fiber Engineering, Georgia
Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0295, USA
e-mail: youjiang.wang@ptfe.gatech.edu
textile waste was recovered in 2007 [1]. The outlets of the
recovered textile waste include reuse, material recycling,
and energy recovery. Overall, 54% of the MSW was
landfilled, 13% incinerated in waste-to-energy facilities,
and 33% recovered for recycling or composting.
The primary source of raw material for synthetic poly-
mers is petroleum. Even for renewable natural polymers
such as cotton, the production requires energy and chem-
icals that are based on nonrenewable resources. Although
the global petroleum reserve may last at least another
several hundred years at the rate of current consumption,
petroleum and many other natural resources are nonre-
newable in practical terms. It is our responsibility to con-
serve these resources for the benefit of future generations.
Recovery from the waste stream includes reuse of a
product in its original form, a common practice for clothes,
and recycling to convert the waste into a product. Typically
recycling technologies are divided into primary, secondary,
tertiary, and quaternary approaches. Primary approaches
involve recycling industrial scrap; secondary recycling
involves mechanical processing of a post consumer prod-
uct. Tertiary recycling involves processes such as pyrolysis
and hydrolysis, which convert the plastic wastes into basic
chemicals, monomers or fuels. Quaternary recycling refers
to burning the fibrous solid waste and utilizing the heat
generated. All these four approaches exist for fiber recy-
cling [2, 3].
The ‘‘closed-loop’’ recycling approach is to recover the
raw material that was used to produce a polymer product,
and then reprocess it into the same product of equivalent
quality as that from virgin material. However, it must be
realized that manufacturing polymer products requires not
only raw material (e.g., petroleum) but also energy for the
production process. The combination of the two parts (raw
material and energy for conversion) represents the energy
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136 Author's personal copy
content of a material. For many polymers the energy
equivalent for raw material is relatively low compared with
energy required for conversion [4]. The recycling process
itself involves not only pollution but also energy, which
can be quite significant even for single polymers but
especially for polymers that are integrated with other
materials. Most fibers for technical applications fall into
the latter category. Therefore for some polymer products,
this ‘‘closed-loop recycling’’ approach is not viable.
Direct reuse for similar or different applications, on the
other hand, requires the minimum amount of energy.
Examples include used clothing and wipes from textiles. In
most circumstances, however, some processing such as
mechanical, chemical and biological is involved to recycle
waste into products, requiring the consumption of certain
amount of energy, additional raw materials, and causing
the emission of waste into the air, water and soil. There are
some environmental accounting tools that could be
employed to evaluate the relative benefits of various dis-
posal and recycling options, such as life cycle analysis, cost
benefit analysis, and contingent valuation method [5]. A
life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a systematic, cradle-to-
grave process that evaluates the environmental impacts of
products, processes, and services [6, 7]. Its quality depends
on the Life-Cycle Inventory (LCI) data it uses and
assumptions made. The U.S. Life-Cycle Inventory (LCI)
Database is hosted by the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory [6], and other LCI data sources are also avail-
able [7].
It should be noted that although a given recycling
approach may not offer significant environmental benefits
at present, the situation may change as further research and
development effort leads to better technologies that are
cleaner, more energy efficient, and less expensive. Con-
sidering the diversity of fibrous waste and structures, many
technologies must work in concert in an integrated industry
in order to have any noticeable impact on fibrous waste
recovery.
Types and Sources of Waste
Most of the fibrous waste is composed of natural and
synthetic polymeric materials such as cotton, wool, silk,
polyester, nylon, polypropylene, etc. These fibers are
consumed and discarded in large quantities. Specialty
fibers are engineered for specific uses that require excep-
tional strength, heat resistance and/or chemical resistance.
Frequently different types of polymers and other materials
are integrated to form an article, such as blended textiles,
carpet, conveyer belts, composites, to name a few.
Industrial waste refers to that generated in the manu-
facturing process of fibrous products. Depending on the
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Waste Biomass Valor (2010) 1:135–143
stage of manufacturing activities where the waste is gen-
erated, it can vary from single polymers to complex multi-
material systems. Since single polymers are more valuable
and easier to recycle, a corporate recycling process should
be designed and implemented to separate waste according
to its component as much as possible. Such practice also
helps identify the source of the waste and devise measures
to minimize waste generation.
Post consumer waste refers to fibrous products discarded
after their service life. Since almost all the fibers are con-
verted into various products and most of them are for
replacement of worn-out or outdated products, the volume
of post-consumer waste is very high and is comparable
with the rate of fiber consumption.
Natural fibers such as cotton, jute, wool and silk are
biodegradable, and so are some of the synthetic polymers
such as polylactic acid (PLA) which is produced from
renewable sources such as corn starch or sugarcanes.
Biodegradable materials may be composted into useful
humus-like soil end product, permitting the return of vital
organic matter and nutrients to the soil. However, currently
very few municipalities separate biodegradable waste for
composting. The decomposition of biodegradable materials
in landfills is a principal cause of methane, an important
greenhouse gas, making landfills one of the largest human-
related sources of methane in the U.S. [8]. Efforts are
underway to recover landfill gases for energy [8].
In order to support significant commercial activities to
recycle post-consumer products, some collection and
sorting networks are needed. There are established chan-
nels to recycle textiles and used clothing. Besides direct
reuse of clothing, textile waste collected could be con-
verted into wipes, or be shredded for filling or nonwoven
applications [9]. Automotive has the highest recycling rate
among all the consumer products. Fibrous waste from the
automotive shred residue has found little use other than as
fuel for waste-to-energy conversion, because it contains a
mixture of incompatible polymers.
Post consumer carpet provides another example of
complex materials systems that are very difficult to recycle.
However, since carpet is more consistent in structure and
material composition than most other single fibrous prod-
ucts, and because of the large volume of carpet waste,
significant effort has been devoted to carpet waste collec-
tion and recycling. Many technologies are specifically
developed for carpet recycling but they can be extended to
recycle other fibrous products.
The tufted structure is the most common type of carpet
with a 90% market share. It typically consists of two layers
of backing (mostly polypropylene fabrics), joined by
CaCO3 filled styrene-butadiene latex rubber (SBR), and
face fibers (majority being nylon 6 and nylon 6,6 textured
yarns) tufted into the primary backing. The SBR adhesive
Waste Biomass Valor (2010) 1:135–143 Author's personal copy
is a thermoset material, which cannot be remelted or
reshaped. The waste containing the SBR (post consumer
and some industrial waste) has not found suitable uses and
it forms the major part of the carpet waste going into the
landfills.
The U.S. carpet industry consumes about 1.4 million
tons of fibers per year, including nylon (60%), polyolefin
(29%), polyester (10%), and wool (0.3%). Among the
nylon face fiber, about 40% is nylon 6 and 60% is nylon
6,6. The type of carpet is classified according to the type of
face fibers used. A nylon 6 carpet, for instance, contains not
only nylon 6 face fibers but also backing fibers (polypro-
pylene) and adhesive (latex and filler). About 70% of the
carpet produced is for replacing old carpet, typically after
5–10 years of service. The rate of carpet disposal is about
2–3 million tons per year in the U.S. [10, 11], and about
4–6 million tons per year worldwide.
Nylon generally performs the best among all synthetic
fibers as carpet face yarn. It is more expensive than poly-
ester and much more than polypropylene. This price dif-
ference suggests that, if it takes the same processing effort
to convert the fiber into resin, an operation on nylon would
be most profitable. This also explains why most of the
recycling effort focuses on nylon recovery.
Fiber Recycling Technologies
In order to support a fiber recycling industry that is capable
of processing a sizable amount of the waste discarded,
there must exist a collection network to provide sufficient
and consistent supply of post consumer fiber waste at
reasonable cost, and a diversity of commercial operations
to produce a variety of marketable products. Diversity is
very important for the success of the industry, as it would
allow most of the waste collected to be utilized for prof-
itable recycling, without quickly saturating any market of a
product. As the past experience has shown, it cannot be
economically competitive if only a fraction of the carpet
waste collected can be recycled, while the rest has to be
sent back to landfills. Many technologies are available and
more are being developed to recycle fibrous waste [2, 10,
12–15]. They differ in product quality, potential market
volume, processing steps and cost. Some of the technolo-
gies are described in this paper.
Fiber Waste Sorting and Recyclate Preparation
Fiber Identification and Sorting
In general, a waste stream of a single type of polymer is
easier to recycle into products with better quality and
therefore higher value, comparing with waste streams
137
containing a mixture of different materials. In the textile
industry, fibrous waste should be separated as early in the
production stage as possible. Establishing a special net-
work to recycle a particular type of polymer is also pos-
sible, as demonstrated by the Eco Circle program by the
Teijin Limited [16]. The program, in operation in many
countries, distributes polyester (polyethylene terephthalate)
textile products to participating organizations such as
schools and sports teams, which agree to collect and bring
back the used textiles for recycling. The collected waste is
then recycled by depolymerization into virgin quality fibers
and products. However, for post consumer fibrous waste, it
is generally difficult to collect the waste based on polymer
type.
For many recycling processes such as nylon depoly-
merization and polymer resin recovery, it is desirable or
required to sort the feedstock according to the type of
fibers. For carpet, the sorting is according to the type of the
face fiber. Melting point indicator is an inexpensive
instrument that can identify most fiber types, but it is
generally slow and cannot distinguish between nylon 6,6
and polyester. Infrared and Raman spectroscopy is much
more effective [17].
Carpet collection involves collecting carpet in individ-
ual stations, sending the carpet to a regional warehouse,
and then to the processing facilities [18]. Sorting can be
done either as the carpet is collected or at a central loca-
tion. A portable infrared spectrometer has been developed
by Kip et al. [19], which is a lightweight, battery operated
unit. It is designed to identify the common carpet face
fibers: nylon 6, nylon 6,6, polypropylene, polyester, and
wool. Unidentifiable fibers, either due to operating condi-
tions or fiber types other than those in the above list, would
be shown as ‘‘unknown’’. Such a low-cost, portable device
is suitable for sorting when it is done at each collection
point.
A typical instrument for fiber sorting in a centralized
facility consists of an A/C powered base unit for data
acquisition, analysis and display, and a probe connected to
the based unit via a fiber-optical cable. In a manual oper-
ation, the probe is moved around to sort carpet pieces. In an
automated facility, a carpet piece moving along a rail
passes by the fiber identification sensor, and it is sent to
different downstream tracks according to the type of face
fiber [20].
Size Reduction
Size reduction to cut large pieces of carpet and textiles into
smaller sizes is often needed in the preparation stage of
most recycling processes. Size reduction by mechanical
actions, often called shredding or grinding, has been
reported [21–27] and many types of equipment are
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commercially available for processing textile and carpet
waste [28, 29]. In a typical process, the feedstock is cut by
a rotary drum fitted with hardened blades against a feeding
bed, and the cut material is then moved against a screen
with specified opening. Pieces smaller than the screen
opening are allowed to drop off and those that do not fall
out would be sent back to the cutting chamber for re-cut-
ting. Although a fiber shredder appears similar to those
used for cutting other types of waste such as wood, the
design for fibrous waste requires sharp cutting edges and a
tight gap between the cutting blades and the feeding bed to
avoid fiber wrapping. High-torque, low rotational speed for
the cutting drum is preferred in order to avoid heating and
melting the polymers. Modern shredding machines are low
maintenance, efficient and inexpensive to operate.
Mechanical Separation of Carpet Components
Mechanical methods have been utilized to separate carpet
components. One or more segregated components then are
recycled into products that generally compete with prod-
ucts produced from virgin polymers.
In a process developed by DuPont [14, 30], nylon 6,6
carpet first passes through dry processes consisting of a
series of size reduction and separation steps. This provides
a dry mix of 50–70% nylon, 15–25% polypropylene and
15–20% latex, fillers and dirt. Water is added in the second
step where the shredded fiber is washed and separated
using the density differences between the fillers, nylon and
polypropylene. Two product streams are obtained: one
98% pure nylon and the other 98% pure polypropylene.
The recycled nylon is compounded with virgin nylon at a
ratio of 1:3 for making automotive parts.
A centrifuge system has been developed to separate
ground nylon carpet into nylon, polypropylene and adhe-
sive (latex and fillers) [31]. The system employs a drum
rotating at high speed to generate a centrifugal acceleration
1,000–1,500 times that of the gravitational acceleration. In
the first stage, a liquid with a 1.15 g/cm3 density is used to
separate the fibers (nylon and polypropylene) from the
adhesive. The second stage using a liquid with a 1.0 g/cm3
density further separates the nylon from the polypropylene.
Some processes separate carpet components without
first going through a size reduction step. The United
Recycling process [32, 33] starts with clipping the face
fibers on loop carpet to open the loops. The next step is
debonding, in which the carpet is bombarded with a
combination of air and steam to loosen the calcium car-
bonate-filled latex backing. The secondary backing then is
peeled off mechanically, exposing the primary polypro-
pylene backing. Next mechanical picks pluck the face
fibers. It is claimed that the cost of this process is low and
that it yields a product stream with 93–95% pure face
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Waste Biomass Valor (2010) 1:135–143
fibers. Other devices employ water jet [34] or dry ice
pellets [35]. The dry ice pellets are shot into an abrasive
zone as a segment of discarded carpet on a conveyor sys-
tem is stripped apart and disassembled. The dry ice pellets
freeze the binder material (usually latex), lowering it to a
temperature that makes the binder brittle and easy to break
apart. The dry ice pellets sublimate directly into gas
without any liquid residues. This process eliminates the
need for a drying operation, which saves energy and avoids
potential chemical pollution.
Dissolution/Reprecipitation Technique
Dissolution/reprecipitation technique has been used to
separate the high value nylon from carpet waste. The sol-
vents used include aliphatic alcohol [36], alkyl phenols
[37] and hydrochloric acid [38]. In the process developed
by Booij et al. [36], the carpet waste is shredded into 0.5–
20 cm2 pieces. Then the carpet pieces are mixed with the
extraction agent, such as methanol. The weight ratio of
solvent to carpet waste is generally 5–20. An extraction
time of 60 min is found to be sufficient to dissolve nylon 6
at a temperature of 135–140°C and a pressure of 0.2–
2 MPa. Solids are filtered out, the solution cooled down
and the nylon 6 precipitated. The nylon obtained has at least
90% of the relative viscosity of the nylon present in the carpet
waste, indicating that no serious degradation takes place in the
extraction process. In addition, the yield of nylon is high
(above 90%). The drawbacks of solvent extraction are
the chemicals involved, modest temperature and pressures
required, and time required. In comparison, the use of
hydrochloric acid [38] as a solvent requires lower temperature
(20–100°C) and shorter dissolution time (2–30 min). How-
ever, hydrochloric acid solvent is not recyclable due to its
reaction with the calcium carbonate filler in the carpet waste.
Another approach to separate carpet components is to
use a supercritical fluid (SCF) method in a batch process
[39, 40]. The solubility of the polymer changes with the
variation in pressure and temperature of the SCF. Sikorski
[39] discloses that the individual polymers in carpet can be
extracted sequentially using a SCF such as CO2 by
increasing temperature and pressure. However, high tem-
peratures (170–210°C) and pressures (500–1,000 atm) are
required to dissolve the various polymers in the SCF sol-
vent. Another development enables the separation of carpet
waste at close to room temperature and moderate pressure
[40]. Up to 2.3 wt% nylon was dissolved in an 88 wt%
formic acid solution. Then supercritical CO2 as an anti-
solvent was added to precipitate the nylon out of the
solution at a temperature of 40°C and a pressure between
84 and 125 atm. Both the solvent and the anti-solvent can
be recycled. The whole process is very controllable and the
resultant nylon is of high quality.
Waste Biomass Valor (2010) 1:135–143 Author's personal copy
Fiber Recycling Approaches
Melt Processing
Melt processing by extrusion converts thermoplastic
polymers into resin pellets [28, 29]. If more than one type
of polymer is blended together, the process is also referred
to as compounding (the resulting pellets are called com-
pounds). Carpet or other fibrous waste typically undergoes
a size-reduction process. The shredded material is bulky
and requires a separate densification process or has to be
fed to an extruder by a specially designed crammer-den-
sifier feeder. Integrated systems with feeding conveyer
belt, shredder, feeder and extruder are available to convert
bulk carpet, fibers, nonwovens and films into pellets. Such
systems require less floor space, are easier and cleaner to
run, and incur low cost in terms of energy, labor and
maintenance. However, the flexibility in terms of product
range is reduced. The extruders may use a single screw,
twin-screw co-rotating, or twin-screw counter rotating
design depending on the throughput, product range, and
mixing intensity desired. The extruder normally has vent-
ing ports to remove volatile gas due to fiber finishes,
moisture, lubricants and others.
The molten polymer is extruded through a die to form
multiple polymer strands, which are cooled and chopped
into pellets. There are several types of pelletizers, and the
common ones are water ring pelletizer, strand pelletizer,
and underwater pelletizer. Selection considerations
include: polymer characteristics such as type, melt tem-
perature, and melt flow index, and operational character-
istics such as degree of automation and pellet quality [29].
The water ring method uses a water jet and a rotating knife
to cool and cut the strands as they emerge, and it is mostly
suitable for polymers with a low melt flow index such as
polyethylene. The strand and underwater pelletizers can
process a wider range of polymers including nylon, poly-
ethylene terephthalate, and polypropylene. In strand pel-
letizing, the strands are cooled in a water tank, dried, and
chopped into pellets. It occupies a large floor space and
requires constant attention of an operator should the strands
break often. In underwater pelletizing, the exit of the
extrusion die is submerged in water and the strands
emerging from the die are cut by rotating knives before the
polymer solidifies. The process is compact, highly auto-
mated and produces pellets that are consistent, smooth, and
spherical in shape.
The product properties and the market value of resins
from recycled polymers depend on the composition of the
material, mostly the purity of the feedstock. For example,
most carpet waste contains two immiscible plastics, nylon
and polypropylene. The immiscibility of these two com-
ponents leads to poor mechanical properties. When carpet
139
is recycled using melt blending, compatibilizers could be
used to improve the properties of the blends [41–46].
Polymer Depolymerization
Polymer depolymerization converts polymeric waste into
monomers or oligomers that may be repolymerized to
produce virgin-quality polymers as a means for closed-loop
recycling. The chemical recycling process generally may
use any type of waste of the same polymer, irrespective of
its polymer molecular weight or additive contamination.
Although the advantages of depolymerization are obvious,
its application to some polymers is limited due to costs
associated with preparation, reaction and purification of
products. Commercial recycling operations are currently
available based on depolymerization of nylon 6 and poly-
ethylene terephthalate (PET).
Because of the higher value of nylon resin in compari-
son with other polymers used in carpet, nylon carpet has
been looked at as raw material for making virgin nylon via
depolymerization. The majority of polyamides used com-
mercially are nylon 6,6 and nylon 6. The waste carpets are
collected, sorted and then subjected to a mechanical
shredding process before depolymerization. Nylon 6 is
made by polymerizing a single monomer, the caprolactam,
and the process may be reversed. Chemical recycling of
nylon 6 carpet face fibers has been developed into a closed-
loop recycling process for waste nylon carpet [15, 47–49].
The recovered nylon 6 face fibers are sent to a depoly-
merization reactor and treated with superheated steam in
the presence of a catalyst to produce a distillate containing
caprolactam. The crude caprolactam is distilled and repo-
lymerized to form nylon 6. The caprolactam obtained is
comparable to virgin caprolactam in purity. The repoly-
merized nylon 6 is converted into yarn and tufted into
carpet. The carpets obtained from this process are very
similar in physical properties to those obtained from virgin
caprolactam.
Depolymerization of nylon 6,6 is more complicated than
that of nylon 6 because nylon 6,6 is made of two monomers,
the adipic acid and hexamethylene diamine (HMDA).
Depolymerization of nylon 6,6 to recover adipic acid and
HMDA has been demonstrated [30, 50–52] but has not been
implemented in commercial operations.
Depolymerization of PET converts the waste chemi-
cally into either the base monomers, namely, ethylene
glycol (EG) and terephthalic acid (PTA) by hydrolysis, or
dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) by methanolysis, or into
oligomers by glycolysis or solvolysis [53], or specialty
chemicals [54]. The Eco Circle program operated by the
Teijin Limited [16] converts used textiles into DMT
which is then repolymerized into PET to make textile
products.
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Waste to Energy Conversion
The energy content of the waste materials may be recov-
ered, at least in part, by incineration, or burning the waste
materials [2, 4, 55–58]. The calorific values of polymers
are comparable with that of heating oil and higher than that
of coal (Table 1) [4]. Municipal solid waste combustion
facilities incinerated about 13% (33 million tons) of the
MSW in the U.S. in 2007 [1], and they play a more sig-
nificant role in countries such as Japan, Denmark, and
Switzerland, where over 70% of MSW is incinerated [4].
Most of these facilities have a waste to energy conversion
process to generate electricity and steam. Waste containing
used paper/wood products, contaminated packaging, and
discarded tires has been combusted. The volume of these
MSW is reduced by about 75% after incineration. The post-
combustion ash still needs to be treated separately and then
landfilled. Public concerns exist for the incineration of
polymer waste concerning pollution and effective energy
recovery. However, with advanced technologies and proper
management, waste-to-energy conversion can be a viable
alternative to landfilling. It is estimated that, if all the
MSW that is currently generated in the United States were
incinerated, the resultant carbon dioxide would be only 2%
of that produced from the combustion of all other fossil
fuels [56]. The current challenges for the incineration of
polymer waste include further improving the incineration
efficiency and reducing the harmful end products in the
form of ash and noxious gases. Unlike some of the recy-
cling technologies, the embedded energy used to produce
the polymer is not recovered or utilized. However, incin-
eration may be an option for mixed polymer waste that is
beyond the capacity of other viable recovery approaches,
such as for textiles collected but not suited for recycling,
including carpet or textiles with unknown fibers or
uncommon compositions.
Solid waste such as tires has been used in cement kilns
as fuel supplement for making Portland cement. In an
Atlanta, Georgia, plant, the use of tires has decreased the
plant’s air emissions by up to 30%, and allowed the com-
pany to meet tighter nitrogen oxides (NOx) guidelines [59].
The use of carpet waste in cement kilns is also quite
Table 1 Calorific values of selected materials [4]
Materials Calorific values (MJ/kg)
Olefins (PP, PE) 46
Heating oil 44
Mixed plastics 37
Coal 30
Wood 16
MSW 11
123
Waste Biomass Valor (2010) 1:135–143
attractive and an effort is made in this direction [60]. The
relatively high fuel value of carpet polymers can reduce the
need for fuels, and the calcium carbonate in carpet
becomes raw material for cement.
Products and Applications
Recycled materials from fibrous waste may be converted
into similar products as those made primarily from virgin
polymers and natural fibers. Only a sampling of products
and applications are mentioned here.
Textiles in good condition are reused as second-hand
clothing. Some textiles such as T-shirts are used as wiping
and polishing cloths [1, 9]. Fibers recovered from textile
and carpet waste can also be reprocessed into textile
products, primarily nonwovens and mats [9, 61–63].
Polymers from carpet waste by melt processing may be
used to make products in a molding process, either used alone
or blended with virgin polymers. They are used widely for
automotive and many other consumer products [2, 11].
The recycled polymers may also be used as matrices in
glass fiber reinforced composites. For such applications,
the properties of the composites are dominated by the
reinforcement (glass fibers), and therefore even recycled
polymers without compatibilization could provide the
composites with satisfactory mechanical properties [64, 65].
Carpet face yarn and textiles may also be used as rein-
forcement to make composites or laminates [66–68].
Adhesives were selected to result in a high modulus and
creep resistant material with good weathering characteris-
tics. The work emphasized shredded carpet selvage to which
various amounts of cut waste fibers such as nylon 6, nylon
6,6, polyester and cotton were added. Fabric bits of waste
denims and cotton-polyester fabrics were also used. The
waste carpet blend was then coated with phenolic or urea
formaldehyde resins that were dispersed in a water base. The
composites contained various amounts of different fibers or
fabrics and 7.5–20 wt% adhesive solids with respect to the
fiber content. The fibers were spray coated and molded in a
heated press at 150–200°C and 3.4 MPa. Test results show
that one can achieve high flexural moduli of 2.4–2.8 GPa
with face yarn, i.e., fibers that bind to the matrix such as
nylon, polyester and cotton. These values together with
flexural strengths of 34–48 MPa make the products suitable
for many outdoor and transportation applications.
Laminates directly from waste carpet pieces were also
made by coating the face yarn with a phenol formaldehyde
resin and molding the carpet pieces back to back with the
face yarn on the outside to achieve a high flexural modulus
[67]. Holes were punched into the carpet prior to spray
coating the face yarn so that protrusions of the matrix
material could flow into the backing during the molding
Waste Biomass Valor (2010) 1:135–143 Author's personal copy
process to avoid shear delamination. The laminates were
also made into honeycomb sandwich structures for
improved flexural stiffness and lighter weight.
Gowayed et al. [69] explored the use of edge trim of
polypropylene (PP) fabric waste (from the carpet backing)
to reinforce a polyethylene (PE) matrix. Four layers of
0.1 mm thick PE film were laid with a single layer of
washed PP fabric waste. Then they were molded at a
temperature of 150°C and a pressure of 290 kPa. It was
found that the resulting PE/PP composite, with 25% PP
volume fraction, exhibited a three-time increase in tensile
strength and a 60% increase in flexural modulus when
compared to the properties of pure PE.
Recycled fibers from used carpet and tires have been
used for concrete reinforcement for enhanced shrinkage
and toughness properties [70–73]. Carpet fibers are also
used for soil reinforcement to improve the strength and
stability of soil [72, 74, 75].
Summary
A large amount of fibrous waste is disposed of in landfills
each year. This not only poses economical and environ-
mental concerns to the society but also represents a waste
of resources. Although recycling fibrous waste into the
same products is desirable, considering the processing
effort, energy and pollution involved, this approach may
not be feasible for many types of waste materials, espe-
cially multi-component systems. Recycling of fibrous
waste should be viewed from a systems perspective to
maximize the economic and environmental benefits.
Textile recycling has a long history in many parts of the
world, and recently many commercial textile and carpet
recycling operations are emerging with various records of
success. Fiber recycling is being expanded as necessary
infrastructure for collection and distribution is improved.
Recycling networks will likely expand across product lines.
Certain types of industrial textiles, for example, may not
attract interest in commercial recycling due to its limited
volume, but when becoming a part of a broad network, they
could be readily processed. The synergetic effect would
support a healthy industry that is based on diversified
approaches that would recycle all types of waste collected.
Research and development effort would lead to new and
improved technologies to maximize the value of recycling.
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