Textile waste is a growing global issue with no effective methods of disposal currently 
available. In Australia, 85% of new clothing purchased annually ends up in landfill, which 
represents a waste of water and energy to produce these textiles. Escalating this issue, is the 
synthetic composition of these textile materials which represent 60% of current clothing 
textiles globally. To minimise the environmental impacts and relieve waste management from 
existing facilities, the concept of utilising recycled cotton fibres as reinforcement in cement 
mortar has been proposed. While most engineering practices typically use synthetic fibre 
reinforcement to obtain specific mechanical improvements, the processing and development of 
these fibres is unsustainable and environmentally damaging. 
Recent studies have found effective uses for natural fibre reinforcement in cement-based 
products. Results demonstrated comparable mechanical improvements, while minimising 
environmental impacts and costs to manufacture. In this study, cotton bed sheets obtained from 
a textile-waste recycling facility were repurposed to a fibrous state to assess the physical, 
mechanical, and microstructural interaction with a cement-mortar. A total of 7 different mix 
designs were prepared with various quantities and lengths of cotton fibres, to evaluate the 
influence of fibre content and fibre length on cement composites. 
To observe the physical properties, flow table tests were performed for each mix to determine 
the workability of fresh mix. It was observed that the increase in fibre content decreased the 
workability, and superplasticiser had minimal effect on higher quantities of fibres. Hardened 
properties were measured using compressive and flexural tests at 7, 28 and 56 day curing ages. 
The compressive strength for samples with increasing cotton fibre content demonstrated a 
decrease in compressive properties. However, flexural properties indicated a significant 
improvement in flexural toughness, and confirmed that the presence of cotton fibres was 
influencing a fibre bridging mechanism. This was supported through microstructural imaging, 
which indicated a strong correlation between fibre dispersion and the cohesion with cement 
bonding. 
Cotton fibres display promising flexural improvements in cement composites, however 
additional research should focus on the chemical pre-treatment of fibres, to enhance the 
dispersion and bonding between cement particles.