Green chemistry degradation of cotton waste for circular economy textiles

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1948422 (Kim). The clothing industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world, producing 1.2 billion tons of carbon emissions per year, with a truckload of clothing discarded globally every second. Diverting high volume cotton textile waste is a promising route to minimize pollution and energy and water-intensive production of new clothing. Green chemistry strategies to breakdown natural fabric waste into feedstocks for reconstituted fibers has tremendous potential to move towards zero waste economies based on cradle to cradle design strategies. About one third of the cotton muslin used at educational fashion institutions (e.g. FIT) in the fashion design sewing, draping and pattern making classes, goes to waste. The cotton muslin used in the classrooms is undyed and unbleached, making it an excellent resource for developing green methods to breakdown natural fibers to cellulosic feedstock. This project seeks to elucidate the chemistry and surface science crucial for optimizing an environmentally-benign degradation process to reconstitute muslin waste to produce precursor materials for textiles. The research objectives of the work include: 1) Optimization of an environmentally-benign method for the regeneration of cellulosic feedstock from cotton waste. 2) Macro to nanoscale characterization of degradation/regeneration mechanisms to identify new opportunities for reduction of the textile waste stream. This project is a collaborative opportunity for student-driven realization of circular economy and sustainability leadership at the intersection of science and design. It also provides a conduit for project-based STEM education as a tool to address pressing global challenge. Successful outcomes of the project will provide a method for cotton muslin waste green chemistry degradation procedures. Investigation of environmentally-benign wet chemistry routes to muslin breakdown will be coupled with a suite of chemical analysis tools, including spectroscopy and microscopy, to understand the interaction between process chemistry and cotton molecular structure. The research will focus on expanding the utility of the chemical approach beyond muslin waste to cellulosic textiles and dyed fabrics in general. This work could highly impact the development of accessible models for circular economy materials and offers a conduit for ecological design and systems thinking in a STEM framework. Non- traditional science students from FIT (especially women and minorities) will perform research activities at Stony Brook University through the Institute for STEM Education (I-STEM), the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program, Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities (URECA), Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs, and the Center for Inclusive Education (CIE) as well as at FIT. Undergraduate students from both Stony Brook University and FIT will receive academic credit, either for independent research or in the context of project work in one of the interdisciplinary courses or programs (e.g. Designing with Emerging Materials, The True Cost: Product Life Cycle Assessment).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.