Your compost pile may hold the key to recycling old cotton clothes
Almeida L, Alexandrino DAM, Lilienthal T, Karpe NV, Ribeiro N
Composting
The compost bin in your backyard isn't just breaking down kitchen scraps, it's hosting fungi and bacteria that could someday turn your worn-out cotton t-shirts and jeans back into soil instead of landfill waste.
Researchers dug through compost piles and found bacteria and fungi that are surprisingly good at eating cotton and other plant-based fabrics, some breaking down more than 70% of the material. Shredding the fabric first and composting it alongside other organic waste worked best, with some setups destroying nearly all of the textile. The team even isolated specific fungi, including types of Neurospora and Aspergillus, that turned out to be the real cellulose-eating champions despite being rare in the compost overall.
Key Findings
Shredded textiles composted with organic waste reached degradation rates up to 97%, and community composting achieved near-complete disintegration of fabric
Metagenomic sequencing showed the compost microbial community was bacteria-dominated (rich in Actinomycetota and Bacillota) with abundant cellulose-degrading enzymes (glycoside hydrolases)
Of 62 microbial isolates cultured, Neurospora and Aspergillus fungi showed the strongest cellulolytic activity (over 60%), with some isolates breaking down more than 70% of cotton mass despite fungi being scarce in the raw compost community
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found that compost is teeming with bacteria and fungi that can break down cotton and other plant-based fabrics, some destroying up to 97% of the textile. This points to composting as a real recycling option for old clothes and a source of microbes for future textile-waste treatments.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Compost microbiomes as reservoirs of cellulolytic microorganisms for cellulosic textile degradation.
Cellulosic textiles, constituting over 30% of global fibre production, are biodegradable but remain challenging to recycle at scale owing to their high crystallinity, chemical finishes, and heterog...
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