A preliminary experimental study to reuse fabric waste as an alternative partitioning material for building interiors

Abstract

Textile industry plays a significant role in Sri Lanka's economy, and it generates tremendous amount of waste in each year. Unfortunately, the country does not practice any specific waste management system rather than disposing in landfills and incinerating in silos though these actions are adversely effect on the environment. Therefore, this research focuses to identify potential methods in reusing textile waste as a readily available, light-weight, cost-effective and non-load bearing partitioning wall material which can apply for building interiors. In the experimental design, discarded fabrics and four varieties of adhesives were used namely, epoxy-resin, polyvinyl acetate (PVA), multi-bond (general purpose solvent-based rubber adhesive), and natural cashew glue to produce a wastefabric- wall-board (WFWB). The fabric layers were glued with selected adhesives and manually compressed in timber moulds to make 10mm thick partition boards. Tensile test was carried out complying with ASTM D3039 and acoustic test were carried out according to the ASTM C423. The natural cashew glue samples have given the highest tensile value and recorded the 9.0N/mm2 of ultimate tensile stress (UTS). Thus, the study concluded that the natural cashew glue extracts as the most optimum and sustainable adhesive option on account of its efficacy and cost-effectiveness in producing WFWB.