Textile Waste to Soil Amendment
A greenhouse study testing char made from end-of-use hospital poly/cotton textiles as a soil amendment for Canadian agriculture.
What happens when we turn hard-to-recycle hospital textiles into char—and grow food with it? This pilot tested two application rates and tracked plant growth, soil health, and nutrient uptake.
What you’ll get from this report
A plain-language summary for material processors, manufacturers, brands, and other non-technical readers
Pilot results at a glance (growth, biomass, soil chemistry, tissue nutrients)
Practical guidance on application rate (what helped vs. what suppressed growth)
A feasibility snapshot (market segments, barriers, and certification considerations)
A replicable pilot framework for other Canadian regions and crops
Why Canada needs its own toolkit
Many Canadian brands and manufacturers lack consistent understanding of circular design; what it is, how it works, and how to implement it.
Canada’s textile recycling and reuse infrastructure varies widely across regions, creating an uneven landscape that makes global circular design frameworks difficult to apply without contextual adaptation.
Educators and emerging designers need accessible, Canadian-relevant resources that bridge theory and practice.
This Toolkit closes the gap by bringing global best practices into the Canadian context, aligning design decisions, business models and system-level opportunities.
