An experimental study to reuse fabric waste as alternative partitioning material in building interiors

Abstract

The construction sector is a significant contributor to the global material consumption and environmental degradation. In response to fulfilling these demands of the construction industry, researchers have adopted the practices of repurposing waste materials to create novel construction materials (Sizirici, Fseha, Cho, Yildiz, & Byon, 2021). Among these alternative approaches, there are a few researches tried to utilize different textile waste as construction materials in the world. Further, it is important to mention that Sri Lankan garment sector generate loads of textile waste and discharge those to landfills, lead to create massive environmental issues though it contributes on 50% of the gross domestic products of the country (Arachchige, Vithanage, Wadanambi, Wandana, Wijerathne, & Wimalarathne, 2019). Most importantly, it was noticed that there is no established textile waste management system in Sri Lanka, though the factories dump significant amount of waste to the environment. University of Leeds (2020) recorded that only 1% of textile waste can be recycled. Further, 60% of textile waste is plastics, which makes the global fashion industry the second most polluter after the global oil industry. Hence, this study was aimed to investigate the possible methods of reusing the textile waste into a substitute construction material and fulfill the demands in construction industry. This research is predominantly focused on non-load bearing partitioning materials which is developed through fabric waste and three types of adhesives namely PVA, binder glue, and cashew glue prepared domestically.