What with fast fashion, loads of clothes are dumped in landfills, especially, I guess, in the US, given its humongous consumption of fiber goods. They are organic matter and therefore supposed to emit methane (well, not clothes themselves, technically, but you get my point). I suppose, food waste contributes to it substantially more, and yet: what is the climate impact of discarding natural apparel in landfills? Keep in mind, I'm not asking about the textile industry's impact as a whole (the study I provided calculated that number) or even the cotton industry's impact. Are there any studies on that specific question (not paywalled ones, preferably)?
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Related: Which materials dumped into landfills are the largest sources of methane?– LShaver ♦Jul 28, 2021 at 21:21
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Are you interested in any particular type of landfill, in any particular country?– LShaver ♦Jul 30, 2021 at 14:48
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@LShaver I don't think it matters much (gas recovery systems aside)– Sergey ZolotarevJul 30, 2021 at 16:37
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1 Answer
Landfill conditions are notoriously anaerobic, so ANYTHING in a landfill will not decompose barely at all. Fact is, few things decompose in landfills, organic waste anaerobically decomposes producing some methane and not much else. Better to reuse cotton as rags. I use old t-shirts as cleaning rages, hen when no longer any good, I wash em one final time then recycle cotton. Better long term strategy is that cotton can be shredded and composted to feed mushrooms. Indoor cultivation of Volvariella volvacea otherwise known as Straw Mushrooms which are edible.
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