The textile and clothing industry is one of the most resource-intensive and polluting industries. The circular economy (CE) is one of the solutions to these problems. The textile industry has been identified as one of the most in need of transformation towards CE. The transition to a circular economy requires changes in the behavior and actions of all market players. Consumer interest in sustainability and the CE can stimulate companies to be more responsible and offer more circular solutions. This article analyses the knowledge and attitudes of consumers, adults living in Lodz (Poland), towards new circular models in the fashion industry (e.g. rent, repair). The development of the clothing rental service is still insufficient, but repair and the use of online portals to sell/buy second-hand clothing is becoming increasingly popular. However, it is still necessary to orient people towards environmentally friendly activities.

Biological wastewater treatment using trickle bed reactors is a commonly known and used solution. One of the key elements of the proper operation of the trickle bed bioreactor is the appropriate selection of biofilm support elements. The respective properties of the bioreactor packing media used can influence, among other things, the efficiency of the treatment process. In this study, the possibility of polyester waste material usage for the preparation of the biofilm support elements was tested. The following properties were checked: adsorption capacity, swelling, surface morphology, microbicidal properties, as well as the possibility of their use in biological wastewater treatment. The tested elements did not adsorb copper nor showed microbicidal properties for bacterial strains Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus as well as fungal strains Aspergillus niger and Chaetomium globosum. The hydrophilic and rough nature of the element surface was found to provide a friendly support for biofilm formation. The durability of the elements before and after their application in the biological treatment process was confirmed by performing tests such as compressive strength, FTIR analysis, hardness analysis and specific surface area measurement. The research confirmed the applicability of the packing elements based on polyester textile waste to the treatment of textile wastewater. The treatment efficiency of the model wastewater stream was above 90%, while in the case of a stream containing 60% actual industrial wastewater it was above 80%. The proposed solution enables the simultaneous management of textile waste and wastewater treatment, which is consistent with the principles of a circular economy. The selected waste raw material is a cheap and easily available material, and the use of the developed packing elements will reduce the amount of polyester materials ending up in landfills.

Heavy metals are major toxic anthropogenic contaminants released into the environment mainly through wastewater discharges. Adsorption is one of the most effective and widely applied methods for their removal from aqueous systems. However, although activated carbon is commonly used, its high cost and limited regenerability motivate the search for cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternatives. In this study, selected natural and waste-derived materials were evaluated for Cu²⁺ removal from both model solutions and atypical textile wastewater. Coffee grounds, chestnut seeds, acorns, potato peels, eggshells, marine shells, and poultry bones were tested and compared with commercial activated carbon. Their structural and functional properties were characterised using specific surface area measurements, optical microscopy, SEM-EDS, and FTIR analyses. Two adsorption isotherm models (Langmuir and Freundlich) were used to analyse the experimental data for the selected adsorbents, and model parameters were determined by linear regression. Based on model solution tests, two materials showed the highest Cu²⁺ sorption potential: coarse poultry bones (97.0% at 24 h) and fine cockle shells (96.2% at 24 h). When applied to real textile wastewater, the bone-derived material achieved the highest Cu²⁺ removal efficiency (79.4%). Although this efficiency is lower than typical values obtained in laboratory solutions, it demonstrates the feasibility of waste-derived materials as low-cost adsorbents and suggests that further optimisation could further improve their performance.