RECYCLING OF CARPET AND TEXTILE FIBERS

YOUJIANG WANG, Yl ZHANG, MALCOLM B. POLK, SATISH KUMAR, AND JOHN D. MUZZY  

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [1, 2] the municipal solid waste generated in the United States is about 210 million tons per year, among which about 40% is paper products, 9% is plastics, and 4% is carpet and textiles. 

There are several disadvantages associated with the current landfilling of fibrous waste. First, a tipping fee is required. Second, due to environmental concerns, there is increasing demand to ban polymers from landfills. Third, landfilling 

Plastics and the Environment, Edited by Anthony L. Andrady. ISBN 0-471-09520-6 2003 John Wiley Sons, Inc. 

According to the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART) and the Council for Textile Recycling [9, 10], more than 1000 businesses and organizations employing many tens of thousands of workers divert some 2 million tons of textile waste from the solid waste stream. Textile waste can be classified as either preconsumer or postconsumer. Preconsumer textile waste consists of by-product materials from the textile, fiber, and cotton industries. Each year 750,000 tons of this waste is recycled into raw materials for the automotive, furniture, mattress, coarse yam, home furnishings, paper, and other industries. Approximately 75% of the preconsumer textile waste is recycled. 

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Wang Y., Zhang Y., PoUc M., Kumar S. and Muzzy J. (2003), Chapter 16 Recycling of Carpet and Textile Fibers, in Plastics and the Environment A Handbook (edited by A. L. Andrady), John Wiley Sons, New York, 697-725. 

A solvent-fi ee adhesive was used for laminating vinyl sheet to wood. A new technology of recycling waste carpets and textiles was developed based on coating individual yam fibers by an adhesive containing solvent The high surface contact area produced materials with excellent mechanical properties. 

In order to decrease human consumption of petroleum, chemists have investigated methods for producing polymers from renewable resources such as biomass. Nature Works polylactic acid (PLA) is a polymer of naturally occurring lactic acid (LA), and LA can be produced from the fermentation of corn. The goal is to eventually manufacture this polymer from waste biomass. Another advantage of PLA is that, unlike most synthetic polymers which litter the landscape and pack landfills, it is biodegradable. PLA can also be easily recycled by conversion back into LA. It can replace many petroleum-based polymers in products such as carpets, bags, cups, and textile fibers. 

Strzelecki C. (2004), Modem Solutions for Shredding, Grinding and Repelletizing Post-Industrial Fiber, Nonwovens and Carpet Scrap , Presentation at 9th Annual Conference on Recycling of Polymer, Textile and Carpet Waste, Dalton, GA, May 10-11. 

Chen T. (1996), Recycling Carpet Waste hy Reactive Extrusion , M. S. Thesis, School of Textile and Fiber Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, March. 

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