The textile industry is one of the largest contributors to global pollution, generating substantial greenhouse gas emissions and millions of tonnes of waste annually. Addressing this environmental challenge through innovative regeneration strategies and using textile waste, particularly cotton, has emerged as a critical focus for resource conservation and sustainable development. Recycled cotton fibers, characterized by their biodegradability, availability, and cost-effectiveness, hold significant promise as reinforcement materials in green composites, though further research is essential to understand and utilize their potential fully. This comprehensive review examines the various types and sources of cotton waste, including fibers, yarns, fabrics, and apparel, and explores the technologies, methods, processes, and equipment employed in their waste recycling process. The paper also discusses the environmental impact of cotton waste and highlights how life cycle assessment and recycling practices enhance sustainability within a circular economy framework. Besides, it systematically discusses mechanical, chemical, and biological recycling processes and the application of recycled cotton waste in developing sustainable, biobased composites and nonwovens for industries such as automotive, construction, agriculture, health and hygiene, furniture, sports, and packaging. Additionally, the paper addresses the technical challenges, trends, and issues in cotton waste recycling, as well as the economic and environmental opportunities it presents. By providing an up-to-date synthesis of cotton waste recycling technologies, management, and applications, this review serves as a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers, and industry stakeholders, promoting innovation and advancing circular textile production systems.

Recycled fibers are commonly used in dissimilar applications and one of the most important applications is sound absorption. Recycled fiber nonwovens currently are in greater demands in industries because of their advantages such as low cost, biodegradability, acceptable mechanical and physical properties, and so on. Sound absorption materials, renewable, and eco-friendly nonwovens have been developed using recycled cotton and polyester fibers. This research provides a contribution to the body of knowledge on the sound absorption properties of nonwovens using recycled fibers which contain cotton and polyester by means of spun-laid technique and provides a better understanding of the effects of a number of manufacturing processes on nonwovens noise control performance and also contributes to the wider adoption of nonwovens as sound absorbers. The sound absorption coefficients were measured according to ASTM E 1050 by an impedance tube method. The results revealed that the average of the sound absorption coefficients increased with the thickness of the nonwovens, but decreased with the nonwoven fabric density.

Consumers expect high-performance functionality from sportswear. To meet athletic and leisure-time activity requirements, further research needs to be carried out. Sportswear layers and their specific thermal qualities, as well as the set and air layer between materials, are all important factors in sports clothing. This research aims to examine the thermal properties of sports fabrics, and how they are affected by structure parameters and maintained with different layers. Three inner and four outer layers of fabric were used to make 12 sets of sportswear in this study. Before the combination of outer and inner layers, thermal properties were measured for each individual layer. Finally, the thermal resistance, thermal conductivity, thermal absorptivity, peak heat flow density ratio, stationary heat flow density, and water vapor permeability of bi-layered sportswear were evaluated and analyzed. The findings show that sportswear made from a 60% cotton/30% polyester/10% elastane inner layer and a 100% polyester outer layer had the maximum thermal resistance of 61.16 (×10³ K·m² W⁻¹). This performance was followed by the sample made from a 90% polyester/10% elastane inner layer and a 100% polyester outer layer, and the sample composed of a 100% elastane inner layer and a 100% polyester outer layer, which achieved a thermal resistance value of 60.41 and 59.41 (×10³ K·m² W⁻¹), respectively. These results can be explained by the fact that thicker textiles have a higher thermal resistance. This high-thermal-resistance sportswear fabric is appropriate for the winter season. Sportswear with a 90% polyester/10% elastane inner layer had worse water vapor resistance than sportswear with a 60% cotton/30% polyester/10% elastane and a 100% elastane layer. Therefore, these sports clothes have a higher breathability and can provide the wearers with very good comfort. According to the findings, water vapor permeability of bi-layered sportswear is influenced by geometric characteristics and material properties.

Consumers purchasing textiles usually feel fabrics for its tactile properties indicating that they are interested in comfort properties rather than other properties. During daily activities, low-stress mechanical action like bending, shear, compression, tensile, and hysteresis occurs on clothing. These high sensitive low-stress mechanical properties have influence on movement comfort of the body. This study reports effect of cotton yarn parameters on tactile comfort and low-stress mechanical properties of four knitted fabrics. These fabrics were developed with cotton yarn having different yarn counts; twist, coefficient of mass variation, neps, hairiness, thin and thick places, and strength and elongation. Half-bleach treatment was carried out on the knitted fabrics and the effect of yarn parameters plus their correlation on tactile comfort and low-stress mechanical properties were evaluated. Results statistically analyzed showed that coefficient of friction, surface roughness, tensile, bending, shear, and compression of knitted fabrics were affected by yarn count. However, in wales direction, tensile resilience (RT%) of knitted fabrics had insignificant change with an F-value of 1.110 and p-value of .248. A correlation was also found between fabric smoothness and yarn count at adj. R² = 83.1%. A relationship between yarn parameters and tactile comfort properties was also modeled using equations.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of fiber loading on mechanical and water absorption characteristics of composites made from sisal fiber and polypropylene matrix targeted for use in bathroom wall tile applications. The amount of fiber content in the composites was varied from 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% to 50% by weight. The composites were manufactured by melt-mixing method. The effects of fiber loading on various composite characteristics were investigated using tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus, impact strength, compressive strength, and water absorption. With the increase of fiber content, properties, such as tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus, impact strength, and compressive strength increases up to optimum level, whilst decrement in these properties were observed after the optimal level. The maximum tensile strength of 52.69 MPa, tensile modulus of 1.1 GPa, flexural strength of 127.8 MPa, flexural modulus of 6.22 GPa, impact strength of 10.195 KJ/m² and compressive strength 137.7 MPa were obtained. Water absorption rate increased with increase in the fiber weight proportion due to the hydrophilic character of the sisal fiber. From the result of this study, it can be concluded that the optimal mechanical and water absorption properties were achieved at 30% fiber content.

Hybrid composites have proven endless benefits to the research communities in terms of environmental friendliness, mechanical properties, and development of new material. The present work explores the tensile, flexural, impact strengths, and water absorption properties of jute and palm leaf fiber-reinforced hybrid composites. Five types of hybrid composites were fabricated by varying jute and palm leaf fiber percentage of J100:P0, J25:P75, J50:P50, J25:P75, and J0:P100% with a constant weight ratio of polypropylene matrix. The findings showed that jute-palm leaf fiber-reinforced composite had positive effect on tensile, flexural, and impact strength. Experimental results showed that the J25:P75% (jute and palm leaf fiber) exhibited the highest tensile strength of 62.2 MPa and flexural strength of 82.26 MPa due to the optimal interfacial properties between the fibers and matrix. The impact strength of composites increased as the proportion of palm leaf fiber increased. Water absorption increased with jute fiber content, reaching a maximum of 1.26% at composite J100:P0, with lower water absorption at J0:P100% composite due to the higher moisture content of jute fiber.