Mapping of Textile Waste Management Techniques and Conversion Pathways: A Bibliometric Review

The global textile industry generates waste at multiple stages, including fiber production, fabric manufacturing, chemical processing, garment production, finishing, and post-consumption. This study examines approaches for effective textile waste management and maps them across stages of activity. It includes two components: a bibliometric trend analysis and a review of developments, practices, and strategies in textile waste management and valorization. The review identifies 2749 research articles and 988 distinct keywords, highlighting themes such as recycling, value-added products, circular economy, and sustainability. The study maps in-process, after-process, and post-consumer waste within the supply chain or redirects it into value-added products within a circular economy framework. In some cases, textile waste is reused in production through reduction, reuse, and repurposing without recycling. Recent research focuses on converting natural and synthetic textile waste such as fibers, yarns, fabrics, trims, and dyes into outputs including recycled fibers and fabrics, nonwovens, lactic acid, glucose, ethanol, biogas, char, and compost. Mechanical recycling is gaining importance for post-industrial waste. When reuse or mechanical recycling is not feasible, chemical and biological treatments are applied. Advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning support efficient sorting, waste prediction, and recycling processes.