Recycling of textile waste into green composites: Performance characterization

Abstract

Recycling of any waste is as such a worldwide phenomenon. In this context application of textile waste for development of some value added product has been thought of in this work. Textile fabric waste is collected from various sources. These waste materials are garneted, so as to produce loose fibrous material. Subsequently this fibrous material was converted into nonwoven web and also twisted strand for manufacturing of 3D woven preforms to be used in composites. In case of nonwoven preforms, the webs are produced by combining polypropylene with cotton component with different proportions. Composites of various specifications are developed to examine their application in several end uses. These composite materials are characterized for their mechanical and thermal behavior in order to find out the response against tensile loading, impact force and thermal loading. The effects of moisture absorption on mechanical properties of these composites are investigated. As the percentage of PP fibres is increased in the web, mechanical performance of the composite material is improved in general. The exposure of composite material to high humidity condition has not shown any significant change in their mechanical behavior. 3D woven fabric reinforced composite produced by using garneted fibre yarn and virgin cotton OE yarn didn't exhibit any significant difference in the mechanical and thermal behavior of composite. The results confirmed that textile waste material can be safely used as reinforcing structure in composite manufacturing. POLYM. COMPOS., 35:1960–1967, 2014. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers