Papers

61,005 results
|
Article Tier 2

Textile recycling- A review

This review examines the growing global textile waste problem and technologies for recycling synthetic and natural fibers. Synthetic textile waste is a major source of microplastic pollution because fibers shed during washing and break down into microplastic fragments in landfills.

2021 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Methods for Natural and Synthetic Polymers Recovery from Textile Waste

This review examined methods for recovering natural and synthetic polymers from textile waste, highlighting how the fashion industry generates massive microplastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions annually. The authors compared recycling approaches for both natural fibers (cellulose, protein) and synthetic polymers, assessing their environmental trade-offs.

2022 Polymers 44 citations
Article Tier 2

Developments in Recycling of Polyester Textile Waste

This review examines developments in polyester textile waste recycling, discussing how the fast fashion model has shortened garment lifespans, increased waste, and contributed to microplastic pollution from synthetic fibres. The authors survey mechanical, chemical, and circular economy recycling approaches, highlighting low current recycling rates especially in developing countries and the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and resource consumption.

2023 Advance Research in Textile Engineering 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Perspectives of Textile Waste Management in the U.S. – A Review

This review examines the growing textile waste crisis in the United States, driven by fast fashion and population growth, and surveys current disposal and recycling practices. Textile waste is an important but underappreciated source of synthetic microfiber pollution when fabrics degrade or are laundered.

2022 Journal of Textile Science & Fashion Technology 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Evaluating the environmental impacts of textile and fashion industries

This review evaluated the environmental impacts of the global textile and fashion industries, finding that resource overconsumption, water pollution, synthetic fiber microplastic release, and vast waste generation make these sectors major drivers of ecosystem degradation.

2023 International Journal of Geography Geology and Environment
Article Tier 2

Role of Textile Industries in Microfiber Pollution

This review examines the role of textile industries in generating microfiber pollution, tracing microfiber release during fabric production, consumer use, laundering, and end-of-life disposal as synthetic textile demand grows with fast fashion. The review documents pathways by which textile microfibers enter freshwater and marine environments and accumulate in aquatic biota, linking industry growth trends to escalating environmental microfiber loads.

2024
Article Tier 2

Sustainability Initiatives in the Fashion Industry

This paper examines sustainability efforts in the fashion industry, where synthetic textiles are a major source of microplastic fiber pollution during washing. It reviews industry initiatives and consumer behavior changes aimed at reducing environmental impacts, including microfiber shedding.

2019 IntechOpen eBooks 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Textile industry as a major source of microplastics in the environment

This review examines the textile industry as a major source of microplastic pollution, synthesizing data on recycling technologies and lifecycle assessments for synthetic textile fibers. It identifies barriers to progress — including fiber lamination with metals, rapidly changing fiber types, and low recycling efficiency — and argues that only a globally coordinated reduction in synthetic fiber production will meaningfully curb microplastic release. The textile sector is one of the largest contributors of microfibers to aquatic environments, making systemic change in this industry critical.

2023 Global Journal of Ecology 9 citations
Article Tier 2

A critical review on environmental pollution caused by the textile industry

This review examines how the textile industry contributes to environmental pollution, including the release of microplastics from synthetic fibers during washing. The study highlights that non-biodegradable materials like polyester, nylon, and acrylic shed microplastic fibers that enter water systems, potentially harming marine organisms and entering the human food chain.

2025 Explora Environment and Resource 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental Pollution by the Fast Fashion: Current Status and Prospects

This review examines the environmental footprint of fast fashion — mass clothing production that generates enormous textile waste, synthetic fiber shedding, and water pollution. It is relevant to microplastics because synthetic garment washing is one of the largest sources of microfiber pollution entering waterways, though the paper focuses on industry-level sustainability responses rather than quantifying microplastic release specifically.

2023 Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Clothing and Textile Sustainability

This review examines sustainability challenges facing the global clothing and textile industry, covering resource use, chemical pollution, and the growing problem of microfiber release from synthetic textiles. Synthetic garments shed millions of microplastic fibers with every wash, making the textile industry a major contributor to global microplastic pollution.

2020 Textile & Leather Review 35 citations
Article Tier 2

Sustainable Fashion

This review of sustainable fashion examines how the textile industry's shift to fast fashion has accelerated environmental damage, including the shedding of synthetic microfibres — a major source of microplastic pollution in waterways — and argues that circular production models and consumer behaviour change are needed to reduce the industry's footprint. The paper is relevant because textile microfibres are among the most commonly detected microplastics in marine and freshwater environments.

2026 International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology
Article Tier 2

Textile Wastes: Status and Perspectives

This review examined the status and perspectives of textile waste management, noting that global fiber production exceeds 110 million tons annually and generates enormous waste volumes as population growth and improved living standards drive textile consumption. The study assessed current disposal pathways, recycling challenges, and the environmental burden of textile waste including microfiber pollution.

2020 IntechOpen eBooks 79 citations
Article Tier 2

Microfibre and nanofibre: pollution and environmental impacts

This review examines microfibres and nanofibres — shed from clothing and textiles during use and washing — as a significant but poorly quantified category of environmental pollutants. Up to 4.28 million metric tonnes of microfibres enter the environment each year, with synthetic garment laundering responsible for about 35% of that total, yet natural fibre shedding is largely ignored in sustainability assessments. The authors argue that both synthetic and natural microfibres need to be included in environmental impact frameworks, especially as fast fashion drives ever-increasing textile production.

2025 Procedia CIRP 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Synthetic Textiles and Microplastics

This review examines how synthetic textiles shed microfibers during washing and drying, covering the mechanisms of release, the environmental fate of microfibers in aquatic systems, and strategies for reducing microplastic pollution from the fashion and textile industry.

2024
Article Tier 2

How can we deal with the large amount of microplastics delivered to landfills and released into the environment by fast fashion? A practical valorization approach for mitigating textile fibrous microplastics before affecting the environment.

Researchers proposed a practical valorization approach for managing fibrous microplastics generated by fast fashion textile waste, addressing the challenge of large volumes of textile microplastics entering landfills and the environment through a circular economy framework to intercept fibers before environmental release.

2022 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Valorization of textile waste: non-woven structures and composites

This review explores how textile waste -- millions of tons discarded annually -- contributes to pollution in air, water, and soil, even when disposed of in landfills. The paper discusses ways to repurpose waste textiles from materials like polyester and nylon into useful products for construction, insulation, and agriculture. This is relevant to microplastic concerns because synthetic textiles are one of the largest sources of microfiber pollution, and finding ways to recycle them reduces the microplastics released into the environment.

2024 Frontiers in Environmental Science 34 citations
Article Tier 2

El costo ambiental de los textiles

This article examined the environmental cost of the textile industry, focusing on synthetic fiber production, microplastic fiber shedding during use, and end-of-life disposal as interconnected contributors to plastic pollution.

2024 AZCATL
Article Tier 2

The current situation of fast fashion industry and how to reduce the waste

This paper reviews the environmental problems caused by the fast fashion industry and evaluates current and emerging solutions including circular economy design and advanced recycling technologies. The authors argue that traditional waste disposal is no longer adequate for the volume of textile waste generated. Transitioning to circular fashion models could reduce the textile fiber microplastics that wash off synthetic clothing into waterways.

2023 Advances in Economics Management and Political Sciences 2 citations
Article Tier 2

A review of the socio-economic advantages of textile recycling

This review analyzed current trends in textile recycling, identifying economic, logistical, and technical barriers that keep global textile recycling rates low despite significant environmental and socioeconomic benefits. The authors argue that moving toward circular economy models for textiles would reduce microfiber pollution, conserve resources, and create employment, but requires coordinated policy incentives.

2019 Journal of Cleaner Production 376 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental Impact of Textile Materials: Challenges in Fiber–Dye Chemistry and Implication of Microbial Biodegradation

This review examines how the textile industry contributes to environmental pollution through both chemical dye waste and microplastic fiber release. Synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon shed non-biodegradable microfibers during manufacturing and washing, while the dyeing process generates contaminated wastewater. The paper highlights microbial biodegradation as a promising and cost-effective approach to breaking down both textile waste and the microplastics it produces.

2025 Polymers 33 citations
Article Tier 2

Research on Recycling Design of Clothing Textiles Based on Sustainable Development

This review examines sustainable design strategies for recycling and reusing clothing and textiles, covering the full lifecycle from design to end-of-life disposal. Textile recycling is relevant to microplastic pollution because synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon shed microplastic fibers during washing.

2023 The Frontiers of Society Science and Technology 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental contamination by microplastics originating from textiles: Emission, transport, fate and toxicity

This review examines how synthetic textiles release fibrous microplastics into the environment through laundering, wear, and disposal. Researchers traced the journey of textile-derived microplastics from washing machines through wastewater treatment plants and into waterways, soils, and the atmosphere. The study highlights that textile fibers are among the most common types of microplastics found in the environment and calls for better mitigation strategies at every stage of the textile lifecycle.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 90 citations
Article Tier 2

Sustainability Challenges of the Textile Industry

This review examines the environmental, social, and economic sustainability challenges facing the global textile industry, including high water consumption, chemical pollution, labor exploitation, and the compounding effects of fast fashion on waste generation and resource depletion. The authors argue that addressing these interconnected challenges requires a multidimensional approach spanning supply chain transparency, regulatory reform, and shifts in consumer behavior.

2025 IntechOpen eBooks