Reflecting on the Disposal of Electronic Textiles in the Era of Sustainability
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35738/ftr.v7.2025.76Keywords:
sustainability, disposal, recycling, post-consumer waste, end-of-life, electronic textiles, e-textiles, smart textilesAbstract
Purpose: This perspective article reflects on end-of-life solutions and the disposal of electronic textiles. The article first provides a brief overview of the area to non-specialists. Publishing trends in the area are then examined with an emphasis on end-of-life, disposal, and recycling. The article then reflects on a process developed to understand the interaction between components of electronic textiles with a view to improving material selection and disassembly at end-of-life. Finally, the article presents a discussion focused on the authors’ views on this topic.
Methodology/Design: Two distinct methods are employed in this article. First, the Scopus database has been used to identify publishing trends related to electronic textile sustainability. Second, a teardown analysis of a commercially available electronic textile hat has been carried out using an established framework from the literature. The framework has been used to understand the interaction between the components of electronic textiles with a view to improving disassembly at end-of-life.
Findings: This perspective article highlights that while end-of-life solutions for electronic textiles are complex, there has been increasing academic interest in this topic. It discusses the use of an established tear-down analysis framework and offers insights from the authors on employing this.
Practical and Social Implications: While this perspective article does not provide a solution to the ongoing challenges with the disposal of electronic textiles at the end of their lives, it discusses topics that the authors believe are important to the area and emphasises a method for improving electronic textile sustainability (designing for end-of-life). As a perspective article, this work is presented to educate, provide a point-of-discussion, and spark further debate on this important topic.
Originality: While interest in electronic textile sustainability and disposal has grown in recent years, the academic literature in this area is still limited. This work offers a concise overview of key factors related to end-of-life consideration for E-textiles as-of 2026.
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