Preliminary study on new micro textile waste fiber reinforced cement composite

Large amounts of nonrenewable resources are depleted by the construction industry in addition to the generation of million tons of mineral waste and carbon dioxide gas every year. For the sake of a more sustainable consumption pattern of building materials, as well as for reducing the waste flux to landfills, the use of recycled materials and wastes should be researched and motivated. One of the promising wastes is textile waste from residues of the garments and textile industries. The recycling and reusing of textile waste would be beneficial for reducing CO2 emissions and energy intake. In this sense, there are already some studies regarding the thermal behavior of this type of material, however, the engineering design properties of textile waste fiber reinforced cement composites to identify the proper application have not been deeply investigated. Hence, the objective of this study was to evaluate the potentiality of using textile waste fiber as reinforcement in the cement paste. To this end, the composites with three different treatments were made and the optimum treatment was chosen based on the flexural test. The result is the feasibility of using this kind of fiber as reinforcement of mortar elements with dewatering treatment.