Research Article Garment Waste Recycled Cotton/Polyester Thermal and Acoustic Properties of Air-Laid Nonwovens S. Sakthivel, 1 Bahiru Melese, 1 Ashenafi Edae, 1 Fasika Abedom , 2 Seblework Mekonnen, 2 and Eshetu Solomon 2 1 Department of Garment Technology, FTVET Institute, Addis Ababa 190310, Ethiopia 2 Department of Textile Technology, Textile, Apparel and Fashion Technology Division, FTVET Institute, Addis Ababa 190310, Ethiopia Correspondence should be addressed to Fasika Abedom; fasikaabedom06@gmail.com Received 18 June 2020; Accepted 14 August 2020; Published 27 September 2020 Academic Editor: Dimitrios E. Manolakos Copyright © 2020 S. Sakthivel et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. is research paper reports a study on thermal and sound insulation samples developed from garment waste recycled cotton/ polyester fiber (recycled cotton/PET) for construction industry applications. In this research work, the piece of clothing waste recycled cotton and polyester fiber is a potential source of raw material for thermal and sound insulation applications, but its quantities are limited. To overcome the above problems, apparel waste recycled cotton fiber was mixed with recycled/PET fiber in 50/50 proportions in the form of two-layer nonwoven mats with chemical bonding methods. e samples such as cotton (color and white), polyester (color and white), and cotton–polyester blend (color and white) were prepared. All the samples were tested for thermal insulation, acoustic, moisture absorption, and fiber properties as per the ASTM Standard. Also, the behavior of the six recycled cotton/polyester nonwoven samples under high humidity conditions was evaluated. e sound absorption coefficients were measured according to ASTM E 1050 by an impedance tube method; the acoustics absorption coefficients over six fre- quencies of 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz were calculated. e result revealed that recycled/PET/cotton garment waste nonwoven mats were absorbing the sound resistance of more than 70% and the recycled nonwoven mats provided the best insulation, acoustic, moisture absorption, and fiber properties. e recycled pieces of clothing waste cotton/polyester nonwoven mats have adequate moisture resistance at high humidity conditions without affecting the insulation and acoustic properties. 1. Introduction e concern over the environment induced a large number of companies to start developing the manufacturing process using alternative materials for their products and seeking new markets. With the significant production of waste fi- brous materials, different companies are looking for ap- plications wherein waste materials may represent an added- value material [1–3]. ermal insulation plays an important role in contributing to the energy savings in the building by heat gains and losses through the building envelope [4]. A study reported that effective building insulation alone will save over one hundred times the impacts of the carbon footprint from material usage and disposal, irrespective of the materials used [5]. Knitted waste can be converted into short fibers by the application of mechanical processes. A series of trials have been undertaken in the course of a research project aimed at more or less complete reuse of fibers from end-of-life textiles. First of all, knitted waste is crushed with a shredder [1]. e use of recycled polyester nonwovens has many advantages compared to conventional sound absorbers, including reduced product cost, good handling, and environmental protection. e sound ab- sorption coefficient of the recycled polyester nonwovens was determined by a two-microphone impedance measurement tube; the determination of the noise absorption coefficient is nothing more than the absorption energy rate of the material against the incidence energy. ey have determined the relationship between the acoustic absorption values mea- sured and the nonwoven parameters including fiber Hindawi Advances in Materials Science and Engineering Volume 2020, Article ID 8304525, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8304525