Researchers at Bangladesh’s Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST) have developed composite garment buttons from three types of industrial waste, offering a possible low-cost alternative to plastic buttons used across the global apparel industry.
The team of Muklachur Rahman, Rubaiyat Fardin Rupom and Gazi Nafizur Islam Tonmoy worked under Associate Professor Mohammad Faizur Rahman in the university’s Department of Textile Engineering, according to a project write-up published by Textile Today on Oct. 3.
They combined cotton knit cutting waste from Interstoff Apparels Ltd, wood sawdust and biological effluent treatment plant (ETP) sludge, binding them with epoxy resin and LAPOX hardener at a 2:1 ratio using the hand lay-up method. Sample S1 contained 5% sawdust by weight, while S2 added 5% ETP sludge.
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S2 outperformed S1 in tensile testing under ASTM D3039, recording peak stress of 34.80 N/mm2, a Young’s modulus of 2,616 N/mm2 and strain at break of 4.80%. Water absorption reached 2.84% after seven days in distilled water, while chemical uptake measured 2.41% in 5% hydrochloric acid and 2.09% in 5% sodium hydroxide.
Processing costs totalled 50 Bangladeshi taka, bringing the batch cost to 249 taka. Assuming 100 buttons per batch, each button would cost about 2.49 taka, compared with 2 to 5 taka for conventional plastic buttons, the project said.
The researchers identified potential uses in casual shirts, trousers, jackets and denim, as well as bag and belt accessories, and demonstrated the finished button on a sample shirt. Textile Today described the work as a proof of concept rather than a finished commercial replacement, and the cost estimate as preliminary.
Commercial production would require proper quality control and thorough safety assessments, the researchers said, before the buttons could help the apparel industry reduce its dependence on plastic and limit microplastic pollution.