Mechanical Properties of Cotton/Wool Waste Blends produced from Needle Felting

Textile manufacturing produces a large amount of pre-consumer waste, which contributes to environmental challenges. This research explored how discarded cotton and wool fibers can be turned into usable fabrics via the needle-felting method, a dry process that uses barbed needles to interlock fibers without water or chemicals. The cotton offcuts were collected from a weaving factory in Bangkok that produces about 10 kilograms each day, while the wool waste was obtained from a weaving community in Mae Hong Son, Thailand, where about 1,200 kilograms of raw wool are processed per cycle, and nearly one-third ends up as waste. The study examined the effect of three blend ratios: 80% Cotton/20% Wool, 50% Cotton/50% Wool, and 20% Cotton/80% Wool. The fibers were double-carded and then processed by needle felting. The resulting non-woven fabrics were tested for thickness, tensile strength, elongation, tearing resistance, and abrasion mass loss. The findings showed that increasing the wool content yielded thicker fabrics with higher strength and elongation, largely due to the crimped and elastic structure of the wool fibers. In contrast, blends with more cotton content exhibited better dimensional stability and lost less mass under abrasion. Among the samples, the 20% Cotton/80% Wool blend showed the best performance in strength and elasticity, while the 80% Cotton/20% Wool blend was the most resistant to surface wear. Overall, the study demonstrated that needle felting can provide a practical way to repurpose textile waste by transforming it into value-added materials.