Denim-jeans Post-Consumer Waste Feedstocks Impact: A Review
Renato Augusto Pereira Damásio
*
Department of Chemical Engineering, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, New York, US.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Background: Climate change and renewable processes, solutions and their products and materials evolved in this chain have been discussed since the past decade. The international pressure to adapt the countries industrial environmental to more sustainable practices have taken place in many areas around the world. Post-consumer textile waste has emerged as a significant environmental challenge due to increasing disposal rates and the complexity of fiber blends, dyes, and finishing agents. At the same time, the packaging sector is seeking renewable and recycled fiber sources to reduce reliance on virgin materials. Although textile waste contains valuable cellulosic and polymeric fibers, challenges remain in feedstock heterogeneity, contaminant removal, and achieving consistent material performance after reprocessing.
Aims: Design a review article based on hypothesis-driven research exploring processing strategies to convert textile waste into functional fiber feedstocks for new application processes carrying out sensitive analysis and Monte Carlo simulations focused on the impact category Global Warming.
Study Design: Review article presenting the actual scenario for post-consumer textile waste and preliminary results for a life cycle analysis of a denim-jeans production.
Place and Duration of Study: Department of Chemical Engineering, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, New York, USA since October 2025 to present.
Results: Jeans-Denim waste stream incorporation in new process and products, physico-Chemical transformation of waste stream into new intermediates to produce replace or add new functionalities into the existent fabrics or to incorporate the design of new materials is a sustainable solution. This evolution reflects how environmental responsibility has emerged as a critical competitive advantage, reshaping production processes to minimize ecological footprints while simultaneously meeting rising consumer expectations. Although this great market and predictions, cutting waste from jeans production contributes to about 10 to 15 % of the waste generated. This waste is recycled mainly by unravelling and shredding it back to fibers.
Conclusions: From the major contributors for the denim production the steps that easily affect and influence are the mass of cotton itself inputted for the jeans production and the fraction of fabric wasted accordingly the feasibility analysis. These preliminary findings contribute to precisely input the life cycle analysis considering broad impacts beyond carbon dioxide and safe hazardous for new applications considering their feasibility from this raw material. Mass cotton and Fraction of textile wasted are the most significative parameters that have great effect on sensitivity analysis means they present a bigger range of variation and could interfere in a major part of the supply chain and their emissions.
Keywords: Denim, jeans, textile, waste, post-consumer, Life cycle analysis