ABSTRACT
The aim of this research was to compare the performance of cotton textiles when exposed to different environmental conditions namely categories “A” to “G”, herein. The testing method complied with standard soil burial methods. The tensile strength of the cotton samples was examined after one week buried in different soil conditions, including gravel only (without compost), top soil only, top soil with 3, 6, 10 and 30% compost. Also, to investigate the effect of water drainage, the top soil with undrained condition was considered. Generally speaking the tensile strength of the samples was reduced due to biodegradation after one-week exposure. Moreover, the results highlighted the important role of water in degradation of the samples. Moreover, the reduction in tensile strength of the buried specimen were very low (few percent) for small percentage of compost and therefore, the presence of 30% compost in soil was resulted in 75% tensile strength reduction for the proposed cotton samples.
