Papers

61,005 results
|
Article Tier 2

Textiles in a circular economy: An assessment of the current landscape, challenges, and opportunities in the United States

This assessment of the textile industry's alignment with circular economy principles found that despite rising production volumes, most textiles end up in landfills or incineration, with mechanical recycling, design for recyclability, and extended producer responsibility identified as priority levers for transition. The authors map current landscape challenges and opportunities for circular textiles across the value chain.

2022 Frontiers in Sustainability 53 citations
Article Tier 2

Fundamental Challenges and Opportunities for Textile Circularity

Researchers conducted qualitative research with textile industry stakeholders to identify fundamental challenges in transitioning to a circular economy. The study highlights urgent needs including standardized definitions to prevent greenwashing, improved sorting and recycling systems for post-consumer textiles, and innovations in mechanical recycling to maintain material value and reduce environmental pollution from textile waste.

2024 Sustainability 11 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

Facilitating a Circular Economy for Textiles workshop report

Researchers convened a workshop to examine how the textile industry can shift toward a circular economy — one where materials are reused and recycled rather than discarded — covering challenges in fiber identification, sorting technology, and policy standards. The report outlines key technical and regulatory barriers that must be addressed to reduce textile waste, including microfiber pollution from washing.

2022 22 citations
Article Tier 2

Analysis of Socio-economic, Technological, Environmental Characteristics of the Life Cycle of Textile Products

This review analyzes the socio-economic, technological, and environmental characteristics across the full life cycle of textile products and their impacts on human health and natural resources. The analysis found that 45% of textiles can be reused and 30% processed into technical textiles, and that extending service life by nine months can reduce energy, water, and CO2 emissions by up to 30%.

2022 Herald of Khmelnytskyi National University Technical sciences
Review Tier 2

Human Perceptions of Recycled Textiles and Circular Fashion: A Systematic Literature Review

A systematic literature review of 100+ studies on recycled textiles and circular fashion found that consumers generally hold positive attitudes toward sustainability benefits but are deterred by perceived quality risks, with emotional and functional value perceptions varying by product type.

2020 Sustainability 116 citations
Article Tier 2

Uncovering the circular economy potential of industrial waste in Sri Lanka (case study from textile industrial - fabric waste)

Researchers surveyed 120 apparel manufacturing industries in Sri Lanka to quantify fabric waste generation, finding that the sector produced 28,745 tonnes of waste in 2022 (approximately 10% of total production), dominated by mixed-material, nylon, polyester, and cotton offcuts managed primarily through recycling and co-processing with an estimated recoverable economic value of USD 12.74 per unit.

2023 E3S Web of Conferences 4 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Innovative Textile Recycling and Upcycling Technologies for Circular Fashion: Reducing Landfill Waste and Enhancing Environmental Sustainability

This systematic review of 95 studies found that circular textile recycling technologies can divert a median of 74% of textile waste from landfills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 38-49% compared to virgin fiber production. Advanced sorting infrastructure using NIR or FTIR spectroscopy proved decisive, boosting yields by 12-18% in mechanical recycling lines. These findings are relevant to microplastic pollution because textile fiber recycling reduces the volume of synthetic fabrics that shed microplastic fibers during use and disposal.

2022 American Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Possibility Routes for Textile Recycling Technology

This review examined possible routes for textile recycling technology, covering chemical, mechanical, and biological methods, and highlighted the urgent need for efficient, cost-effective recycling processes to address the fashion industry's growing environmental impact.

2021 Polymers 176 citations
Article Tier 2

Business strategy and innovative models in the fashion industry: Clothing leasing as a driver of sustainability

Researchers explored clothing leasing as a circular business model that could reduce the fashion industry's environmental footprint, which ranks among the largest sources of global pollution. Using multicriteria analysis, they evaluated the sustainability potential of leasing compared to the traditional fast-fashion model of producing and discarding garments. The study suggests that leasing-based models could meaningfully reduce textile waste and resource consumption in the fashion sector.

2024 Business Strategy and the Environment 26 citations
Article Tier 2

Circular Economy Practices in Fashion Design Education: The First Phase of a Case Study

Researchers examined whether circular economy principles are integrated into Fashion Design Technician courses in Portugal, using documentary analysis and a questionnaire survey of 40 educators. The study assessed curriculum coverage of sustainability and circularity concepts, identifying the degree to which fashion education addresses textile microplastic pollution and waste reduction as part of professional training.

2025 Sustainability 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Combining Flexible and Sustainable Design Principles for Evaluating Designs: Textile Recycling Application

Researchers developed a framework combining flexible and sustainable design principles to evaluate textile recycling technologies. The study addresses the growing environmental burden of textile waste in the U.S., where over 15 million tons are discarded annually with less than 15% recycled, contributing to microplastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The proposed evaluation method aims to help identify recycling approaches that are both economically viable and environmentally responsible.

2023 Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering 6 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

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

Synthetic dyes: a barrier to circular economy within the textile industry?

This review found that synthetic dyes embedded in textiles are a major barrier to fiber-to-fiber recycling because dye removal is chemically complex, generates hazardous byproducts, and can itself release microplastic fibers and toxic solvents. Life-cycle analyses of recycled textiles show inconsistent environmental benefits, partly because the recycling process creates new pollution. The authors argue that designing clothes without synthetic dyes from the outset would dramatically improve the environmental performance of the fashion industry's growing circular economy ambitions.

2026 Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability
Article Tier 2

Trends in the Fashion Industry. The Perception of Sustainability and Circular Economy: A Gender/Generation Quantitative Approach

This study surveyed consumer perceptions of sustainability and circular economy concepts in the fashion industry across gender and generational groups, finding significant differences in awareness and willingness to adopt sustainable purchasing behaviors.

2020 Sustainability 484 citations
Article Tier 2

Recycling and valorization of textile waste

This review examines the textile industry's contribution to environmental pollution, focusing on synthetic fiber waste, greenhouse gas emissions, and microplastic release driven by fast fashion and overconsumption. It surveys EU regulatory efforts and circular economy strategies aimed at improving textile recycling and reducing the environmental footprint of synthetic materials.

2025 Serbian Journal of Engineering Management
Article Tier 2

A call for a fashion pact: challenges and opportunities for circular economy in the brazilian fashion industry

This paper examines the challenges and opportunities for circular economy practices in Brazil's fashion industry, which produces large amounts of textile waste. Textiles are a major source of microplastic fiber pollution, and transitioning to circular models could significantly reduce plastic emissions from clothing manufacturing and laundering.

2023 OBSERVATÓRIO DE LA ECONOMÍA LATINOAMERICANA 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Valuing Modern Technologies to Boost the Circular Economy in the Fashion Industry

This study examines how modern technologies can support circular economy principles in the fashion industry, focusing on reuse, repair, reconditioning, and recycling strategies to reduce plastic and textile pollution.

2024 Proceedings of the ... International Conference on Business Excellence
Article Tier 2

Systematic Insights into a Textile Industry: Reviewing Life Cycle Assessment and Eco-Design

This systematic review of life cycle assessments for the textile industry identified key environmental impact hotspots across the supply chain, finding that fiber production and dyeing processes dominate environmental burdens and that eco-design strategies offer the greatest improvement potential.

2023 Sustainability 25 citations
Article Tier 2

Gaps, challenges and drivers for environmentally sustainable textile and garment manufacturing in India

This is a policy and sustainability study reviewing the challenges and opportunities for environmentally sustainable textile manufacturing in India; it is not a microplastics research paper, though synthetic textile production is indirectly linked to microfiber pollution.

2023 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Sustainable Textile Industry: An Overview

This review examines the environmental sustainability challenges of the textile industry, covering chemical pollution, high water and energy consumption, and solid waste generation at every production stage, while discussing strategies such as sustainable materials, cleaner processing, and circular economy approaches.

2022 Non-Metallic Material Science 26 citations
Article Tier 2

La transición a una economía circular como una ventaja competitiva en la Pyme de la manufactura textil en Tlaxcala, México

This study assessed whether adopting circular economy principles could serve as a competitive advantage for small and medium-sized textile manufacturers in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Survey results showed that firms applying circular practices reported better environmental and economic outcomes. The fashion and textile industry's transition away from linear production models could significantly reduce its plastic microfiber pollution.

2022 Acta Universitaria 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Competitiveness of Enterprises in Manufacture of Textile: Empirical Evidence of Czech Republic

This paper examines how innovation and circular economy principles are increasingly shaping competitiveness in the European textile manufacturing sector. Textiles are a major source of microplastic fiber pollution through both manufacturing wastewater and consumer washing, making circular approaches to textile production particularly relevant for reducing microplastic release.

2023 Visegrad Journal on Bioeconomy and Sustainable Development