Ученые из Австралии разработали метод переработки текстильных отходов в удобрение с помощью червей

Clothing waste is proliferating across the globe, and Australia is one of the top garment consuming countries. The carbon footprint of the country’s fashion consumption is the largest of any G20 nation. Researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology are looking to tackle this issue by developing a method to turn cotton textile waste into compost. “In Australia, this [consumption] translates to around 47 kilograms of clothing per person each year, with around 24 kilograms of that discarded. This results in millions of tonnes of garments going to landfill,” said Amanpreet Singh from RMIT’s School of Fashion and Textiles. “Only a small percentage is recycled and sent to the secondhand clothing market. Ideally, any remaining unwanted garments made from natural fibers should be biodegraded.” The research at RMIT was led by Professor Rajkishore Nayak and funded by Australia’s Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC), which is a partnership between Australia’s government and the country’s cotton growers. The university gathered a multidisciplinary team from RMIT’s Melbourne and Vietnam campuses with expertise in textile materials, biodegradation and composting chemistry, and supply chain logistics modelling. The team focused on two key questions: What is the best composting method for cotton waste? Where in Australia is the most economically viable location for a composting facility? The researchers worked in a five-stage process that included collecting textile waste; sorting, cleaning, and shredding cotton-rich materials; composting methods; testing compost quality; and identifying optimal locations for future composting facilities. The team determined that vermicomposting, a process which uses earthworms to break down organic material, is the best way to create nutrient-rich compost from cotton. This method creates a compost that is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which is better for soil health than chemical fertilizers. The final part of the project was developing a model to identify the best locations for composting facilities in Australia, ensuring that these sites would be practical and economical to operate. The team looked at multiple criteria to make this decision. “This included factors such as land cost, access to roads and utilities, temperature, humidity, and proximity to residential, cultural and protected areas,” said Vinh Thai, RMIT professor of logistics and supply chain management. The team took the information resulting from this analysis and combined it with quantitative modelling of transport distances and volumes. The modelling identified Ripley Valley in Queensland as the best option for a single, national composting facility, along with additional sites for individual states. Researchers at RMIT are continuing to build on these findings. A PhD candidate at the Brunswick campus is working on experimental composting under controlled and uncontrolled conditions. Nayak is also looking to continue related research in Vietnam with collaborators from the university and industry.