In the last years, sustainable practices have been developed to minimize the negative effects of production and excessive consumption on the environment. The textile and clothing industry is one of the most polluting industries globally and needs to rethink its strategies. The fast-fashion caused an increase in production, and the environmental weight associated with the textile industry also increased. The problems range from the enormous expenditure of water resources to the carbon and greenhouse gas emissions to reaching the consumer. This review focuses on the eco-friendly approaches taken by the industry towards supportable apparel manufacturing, from the choice of raw materials to the last step in the textile industry.

The disposal of a high volume of waste-containing proteins is becoming increasingly challenging in a society that is aware of what is happening in the environment. The dairy industry generates several by-products that contain vast amounts of compounds, including proteins that are of industrial importance and for which new uses are being sought. This article provides a comprehensive review of the potential of the valorisation of proteins that can be recovered by chemical and/or physical processes from protein-containing milk by-products or milk surplus, particularly whey proteins or caseins. Whey proteins and casein characteristics, and applications in non-food industries, with special emphasis on the textile industry, packaging and biomedical, are reported in this review, in order to provide knowledge and raise awareness of the sustainability of these proteins to potentiate new opportunities in a circular economy context.

Textile waste recycling faces significant challenges due to contaminants that remain on the fibers, interfering with recovery processes regardless of the method used. In chemical recycling, the original finishing additives present in textiles can disrupt secondary reactions, making a pre-treatment step essential for impurity removal and chemical recycling process optimization. This study explores effective pre-treatment methods for the chemical recycling of cotton (CO) and polyester-cotton blends (PES-CO/CO-PES), focusing on approaches that balance efficiency and sustainability. An alkaline pre-treatment was used for decolorizing the samples, with ISO brightness measured, showing PES-CO achieving the best result (80.6%). As an innovation, process optimization was carried out by introducing an additive that allowed a 50% reduction in the amount of Na₂S₂O₄ required while maintaining decolorization efficiency. This modification enhances process sustainability by reducing the consumption of chemical reagents. Additionally, an acid treatment with nitric acid was applied after the alkaline treatment to remove residual metals that could interfere with chemical recycling. This step proved highly beneficial, not only improving the purity of recycled materials but also increasing ISO brightness in all analyzed samples. Another crucial factor assessed was the degree of polymerization (DP_v), which determines the material’s suitability for further recycling processes. Results showed a slight decrease in DP_v throughout the treatments, indicating that despite the effective removal of dyes and contaminants, the structural integrity of the fibers was preserved, ensuring high-quality recycled material.