Recent sustainability trends in composting textiles: Process, factors, benefits and challenges

Composting of textiles presents a viable solution for managing textile waste in an ecofriendly manner. Textile composting, specifically designed for natural fibres such as cotton, flax, wool, and silk, can transform waste into nutrient-rich compost, benefiting soil health and reducing the reliance on chemical fertilizers. Overall, textile composting emerges as a sustainable and practical solution for managing end-of-life (EOL) textiles that aligns with circular economy principles. This paper has highlighted the principles of textile composting; various inputs needed for effective composting, in addition to the outputs. The degradation process of natural textiles such as cotton, wool and silk is discussed in detail. It has been found that cellulosic fibres like cotton and flax are easy to decompose compared to protein fibres such as wool and silk. However, the presence of various chemical finishes on textiles, hinder the composting process. Among the two widely used animal fibres, silk and wool, silk degrades faster compared to wool due to simpler chemical structure of silk. Further, various factors such as aeration, moisture, ambient temperature, pH, carbon to nitrogen (C: N) ratio and particle size influencing the composting rate are covered in this paper. Benefits and challenges associated with composting of textiles are also covered. Finally, there are future recommendations for the practitioners and policymakers in the field of textile composting.<p></p>