Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Textile recycling- A review

This review examines textile recycling approaches for diverting the fast-growing global textile waste stream from landfills, covering mechanical, chemical, and thermal recycling methods and highlighting barriers including fibre blends, contamination, and economic viability that limit current recycling rates.

2021 Global Journal of Engineering and Technology Advances 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Textile Waste Recycling: Emerging Technologies, Environmental Challenges, and Sustainable Solutions

This review synthesizes current knowledge on textile waste recycling, covering mechanical, chemical, and biological recycling technologies alongside environmental challenges and sustainability trade-offs. The authors highlight microfiber shedding and hazardous dye contamination as key barriers to effective textile circularity, and identify emerging solutions including enzymatic processing and closed-loop fiber-to-fiber recycling.

2025 American Journal of Polymer Science and Technology
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

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

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

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

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

Navigating the Legislative Interventions, Challenges, and Opportunities in Revolutionizing Textile Upcycling/Recycling Processes for a Circular Economy

This review examines the legislative interventions, challenges, and opportunities in transitioning the textile industry toward a circular economy. The authors highlight that despite advances in recycling technologies, challenges persist in collecting, sorting, and processing textile waste at scale. The study discusses emerging solutions including bio-based chemical processes and thermochemical recycling, alongside regulatory efforts like the EU's Sustainable and Circular Textiles Strategy.

2024 ACS Sustainable Resource Management 12 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

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

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

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
Systematic Review Tier 1

The Historicity of the Textile Industry in Brazil: Origins, Transformations and Legacies

This systematic review of the Brazilian textile industry identified advances in biotextile production and effluent treatment, but found persistent challenges including low recycling rates, microplastic generation, greenhouse gas emissions, and a lack of specific textile waste policies. The findings support the need for circular economy strategies in the textile sector.

2025 Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental
Article Tier 2

State of the Art in Textile Waste Management: A Review

This review examines the current state of textile waste management, from collection and sorting to recycling technologies. Researchers found that advances in near-infrared sorting, chemical recycling, and biological recycling are creating new possibilities for recovering value from discarded fabrics. The study highlights that textile waste is a significant contributor to landfill volume and microplastic pollution, making improved management essential for environmental sustainability.

2023 Textiles 88 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

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
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

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

Progress of Recycled Polyester in Rheological Performance in Molding, and Economic Analysis of Recycled Fibers in Fashion and Textile Industry

This review examined the recycling performance of polyester fibers and assessed the economic viability of recycled polyester in the fashion and textile industry. Recycled polyester from PET bottles and textile waste showed acceptable rheological properties for fiber production. Expanding recycled polyester use in fashion reduces the need for virgin plastic and addresses the textile industry's substantial microplastic pollution footprint.

2022 IntechOpen eBooks 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Fibrous Microplastics Release from Textile Production Phases: A Brief Review of Current Challenges and Applied Research Directions

This review examines how microplastic fibers are shed during various stages of textile production, from spinning and weaving to dyeing and finishing. Researchers found that fibrous microplastics account for roughly half to 70% of all microplastics found in global wastewater, primarily originating from synthetic fabric manufacturing and household laundering. The study identifies gaps in current knowledge and explores recycling technologies and regulatory approaches that could help reduce textile microplastic pollution.

2025 Materials 15 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

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

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
Article Tier 2

Analysing the barriers of sustainable supply chain in fashion sector: a review

This review identified the main barriers to sustainable supply chain management in the fashion textile sector in Egypt, including high costs, lack of regulatory enforcement, and limited consumer awareness. Sustainable supply chains are essential for reducing the textile industry's plastic microfiber pollution and overall environmental footprint. The review provides guidance for prioritizing reforms in emerging textile markets.

2022 International Business Logistics 7 citations