Waste and Recycled Textiles as Reinforcements of Building Materials

Abstract

Currently, the use of composite materials in the construction areas has had a great impact on the society; mainly, those related with sustainability and environment aspects. Daily proposals aimed at overcoming the properties of traditional materials that arise, which include emergent materials either from waste or recycled products. One of them is related to the textile materials, which include fibers such as wool, hemp, linen, and cotton. In the past decade, special attention has been focused on the used clothes, which represent a source of raw materials environmentally responsible and economically profitable. Textile materials are discarded daily around the world, representing approximately 1.5% of the generated waste. Blue jeans are the most used clothing in the world, and they are elaborated by one of the most commonly used natural textile fiberscotton. Textile materials have been reused in different applications, for example, in the production of poor-quality wires, crushed to manufacture noise and temperature insulation materials, and as fillers or reinforcements of concrete. In this chapter, different topics are described that include: (a) environmental impact of textile waste-a result of massive consumption of clothing, (b) recycling and reuse of textile waste, and (c) waste and recycled textile materials used as building materials.

Mechanical properties of all-cellulose composites from end-of-life textiles

“…To produce 1 kg of cotton which approximately equals a pair of jeans and one T-shirt, more than 20,000 l of water and a lot of pesticides are used to ensure a good harvest. Denim jeans are among the most popular clothing textiles in the world consumer's demand and a significant part of global cotton production is be applied for denim fabric production [6]. The potential value of cotton textile waste as a source for textile reinforcements for the production of cost-effective and composites has been investigated [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

A Review on Textile Recycling Practices and Challenges

“…Textile waste represents a source of raw materials for typical application in construction, such as insulation materials for noise and temperature and fillers or reinforcements of concrete [78]. The conversion of fibrous carpet waste into a value-added product as soil reinforcement demonstrated that fibrous inclusions derived from carpet wastes improve the shear strength of silty sands [79].…”

Rethinking sustainability towards a regenerative economy

“…Fibers could also be those recovered from various waste streams, which could be suitable for lightweight concrete reinforcement (Zhou et al, 2010). Textile cutting waste has also been mixed with epoxy resin and foundry sand for producing a composite material used for lightweight construction (Pichardo et al, 2017). Regarding thermal insulation, thermal conductivity of the materials (λ) is the most important characteristic that should be considered since thermal conductivity is a measurement of the ability of a material to transmit heat.…”

“…Moreover, fibrous materials have good sound absorbing potential. The acoustic efficiency of the textile was confirmed by analyzing the thermal and acoustic insulation, like cellulose fibers mixed into concrete (Paiva et al, 2011;Briga-Sa et al, 2013;Pichardo et al, 2017).…”