A Green Nonwoven Yarn-Spinning Paradigm: Transforming Short-Staple Fibers into High-Wicking Knitted Fabrics for a Circular Textile Future

The textile industry ranks among the world’s top two polluting sectors, responsible for extensive water consumption, chemical discharge and waste accumulation. Conventional spinning further exacerbates resource inefficiency by imposing strict fiber-length requirements, which limit the use of short or recycled fibers and hinder circular solutions. To address this, we propose a novel nonwoven strip spinning method, where short fibers are formed into a hydroentangled nonwoven web, cut into strips, and twisted into yarn. This approach bypasses drafting and roving, preserving the web structure while reducing processing complexity. The resulting nonwoven-based yarn (NY) was plied with cotton yarn for strength and knitted into a fabric (NYF). NYF retains a multidirectional capillary network, achieving a peak wicking rate of 80 mm/min, a wicking height of 170 mm in 30 min, and 417% water absorption. Though slightly rougher than paper yarn fabric, NYF shows similar thermal conductivity (0.0426 W/m·K) to conventional fabrics, making it suitable for hygiene and home textile applications, such as towels and mats. This scalable, material-agnostic strategy transforms low-value short fibers into high-performance textiles, advancing moisture management and offering a more resource-efficient pathway for textile production.